The Polar Carp
by Bearthsong
Summary: After being banished by his famous father, the Mayor of Nystullum, Captain Marney Raddek has returned home with his odd new family to the water-world of Mon Cala as a low-status garbage scow operator for the Empire. His father, now known as the war hero Admiral Raddus, offers him a chance to redeem himself by working as a double agent for the Rebel Alliance.
1. Returning Home

_**The Polar Carp**_

(A Fan Fiction story based on and around the character of Admiral Raddus (from _**Rogue One**_ ). The story takes place several years before the events of _"Rogue One"._ Some elements (i.e. Admiral Raddus' family and his first name) are from my imagination and therefore non-canonical; but I have also made an attempt to follow the more firmly established details of the _Star Wars_ Universe.) ( **Star Wars created by George Lucas)**

 _ **Chapter One: Returning Home**_

Captain Marney Raddek hustled the last group of enslaved escapees on board his garbarge scow, which was known to his crew as " _The Polar Carp_ ", after its fish-like captain. Like most people of his world, Marney was an amphibious humanoid with bulbous, fish-like eyes and webbed hands and feet, known throughout the galaxy as a _mon calamari_ or _mon cal_ for short. His skin was a slate-blue, grayish color, which meant that he was one of a race of mon cals that inhabited the Northern Polar region on the water-world of Mon Cala.

There were people of all kinds on board _The Polar Carp_ today, many of them from the m _on calamari_ and q _uarren_ races of Marney's own home-world; but the rest of them were an odd assortment of humans, twi'leks, wookiees, with even a few ewoks thrown into the mix. Marney had transported many people over the years, from every planet imaginable.

Marney always tried his best to make sure he took at least one small group of prisoners away from the Empire's slave camps every time he carted their trash away. The prisoners were most often youngsters, as the Guards preferred them to be taken off their hands so that they did not need to bother with them. Many of these children were orphans whose parents had died working in harsh conditions, and so Marney Raddek had an "unofficial" agreement with the Empire to take some of the "trash kids" along with the garbage to dispose of them, as one cynical guard put it. Younger children were not much use as slaves, for they often did not have the strength to labor as hard and as long as their oppressive masters wanted.

Marney would cackle at the guards' morose jokes about the little slaves, using his best "evil lout" persona to convince them that he was up to no good so that they would let him have the kids. After Marney had secured the children safely on his ship, he would then drop them off at various social-service investigation offices or, if possible, return them to their parents. When bringing them to social services agencies, he always tried to make sure that he was handing them over to trustworthy individuals and groups rather than those that would exploit them further. He refused to give them over to anyone who could not be trusted to work in the children's best interests; but it was a difficult responsibility determining who they could and could not trust.

"All right, Kiddies, relax!" he told his current passengers once they were settled and " _The Polar Carp_ " was flying away from the prison camp, "We're going to bring you somewhere safe. In the mean time, crew member Salken Rale will give you some rations to eat and show you his games. Sal, get to it!"

An eighteen-year-old, orange-and-white mon cal boy stepped forward, dressed in plain grey trousers and a sleeveless shirt. He was himself a former escapee-orphan who had been taken in by Captain Marney and later trained as a member of the crew.

"Yes, Captain Raddek," Sal acknowledged while Marney ambled off to the main bridge of his scow.

Radka Marne Raddus, now known simply as "Marney Raddek", was the son of the famous mon calamari Admiral, Charcorr Raddus.

The younger Raddus had been born in the underwater city of Nystullum, in the polar regions of the planet Mon Cala (or Dac as it was also known in several of the world's dialects). Radka had grown up in a warrior clan and was therefore expected to serve either in the military or as a political leader. Radka disliked the silly charades that permeated politics, and so he had opted to attend the surface-based Northern Bay Military Academy, situated in the floating "City of the Ice-Star".

Ice-Star City was really more of a floating village than a city, but its folksy charms had agreed with the parochial tastes of a teenage Radka.

He had gone out on drinking sprees during his off-duty hours, and he would return to his dormitory drunk more often than not. He was, however, a little better at hiding it than his peers: he would get caught and disciplined only every other week.

He managed to graduate from the academy in spite of his lousy academic record, but only because he excelled at underwater battles when he was sober. After he developed a bit more discipline as an adult, he moved up through the ranks of the Mon Cala Navy until he became a captain and was transferred to the Outer Space Division. He was trained in and soon commanded a small warship, which he did with great vigor and bravado—until one day, when he made a strategic error during a space-skirmish with members of a smugglers' ring. He was hung over from a late-night drinking spree while in command of " _The Snowstar_ ", a ship of superior weaponry compared to the smugglers' salvaged craft, and because of it he was foolishly overconfident in his directions to the crew. Before he realized his mistake, he had given an order which left the ship vulnerable on one side. His opponents seized the opportunity to strike the vessel, badly damaging it in the process.

He and his crew survived their ordeal by recovering as best they could and defending themselves with their greater firing power, but the smugglers that they had been ordered to capture escaped with their entire load of illegal substances. The mission had been a relatively simple one but Captain Radka Marne Raddus had screwed it up nonetheless. When his superior officers learned the reason for his shameful performance, they discharged him from the military as punishment. He was told that he could re-apply to the Ocean Division of the Navy after a year had passed and he had proven that he no longer drank alcohol excessively; but he would need to begin all over again from the most humble ranks.

The worst part about it was explaining to his father, who at that time was the Mayor of the underwater city Nystullum, how he had been bested by a group of half-rate pirates. His father Raddus was furious and banished him from the family home after he and Radka had fought bitterly one night over the failure.

Radka had left his family and his clan in disgrace, departing Nystullum in order to take a job on a garbage scow until he was able to sort out his drinking problem.

Fifteen years later, the self-renamed Marney Raddek was in command of the garbage scow, " _The Polar Carp_ ". At least on the scow, he reasoned, he could keep his captaincy. His father had practically disowned him, but Marney Raddek refused to dwell on it. He had cut down on and finally quit his drinking habit within the past ten years thanks to his twi'lek wife, Lyna, and her teenage daughter Rixxi, as she was known by her oddly-matched mother and stepfather.

Lyna had been born on a far drier world than that of her husband, a planet known as Ryloth. Her head was equipped with a pair of thick, prehensile tentacles which fell down below her back, called in her language "lekku". Her skin was of a light-blue color and her ears were rather cone-like. Lyna Kooloo had been rescued by Marney fifteen years ago from a slave dealer and she subsequently married him as an expression of her gratitude. Many people assumed that she was the scow captain's paid companion but in reality they were a closely bonded, married couple. Lyna's daughter Rixxi had been only two years old at the time, and Marney had officially adopted her at an out-of-the-way social services outpost. It was not long after the marriage that he also adopted the orphan named Salken Rale, a mon cal boy who was one year older than Rixxi.

Since then, he and his strange family had not been back to Mon Cala but had instead created a home of sorts by a small lake on Lyna's home-world of Ryloth. The Empire was in control of Ryloth at present, which had meant that the couple were forced to watch what they did and who they spoke to when they were there. As a result of the restrictions, the family had finally decided to abandon their home on Ryloth a few years ago and live aboard _The Polar Carp_ full-time, carting garbage for the Empire and saving young orphans on the side.

Now, however, they were going to have to go back to Marney's home-world, as the number of _mon cal_ and _quarren_ orphans that they had just picked up at the prison camp was fairly high; and as well, the ship needed to be overhauled and re-licensed, which because of its origins could only be done from Mon Cala. It was there that he had originally bought " _The Polar Carp_ " from the old Captain and had begun his own trash-hauling business.

Besides, as Lyna had reminded him, Mon Cala had superior social work agencies which could handle looking after all the children and placing them in culturally appropriate homes.

"Well, Marney, you old fish!" she teased him fondly as they made their way to the ocean-planet, "It looks as though I'll get to meet your family at last. Do you think I'll be welcomed with open arms...and webbed, clawed fingers? Or will they throw me to the predatory sea monsters?"

Marney knew that his wife was excited at the prospect of traveling to his world. She had for many years questioned him about it extensively. She was interested in how his people had managed to repel the Imperial Forces from their beleaguered world during its occupation, and she especially wanted to meet his mother and father. He was fairly certain that his mother would grudgingly accept the relationship, but he knew for certain that his father would not.

"Once I get the ship into the servicing bay and find out the bad news as to how much it will cost me to fix and re-license," Marney told her as she manned the navigation console, "and once we deliver the kids to the Family Services Office, I will contact my mother to see if she will permit us entry into the city...my father, The Admiral, will be off on a military adventure, so he won't be there."

"Don't be too sure," Lyna replied, "I heard over the news comm that an Admiral Raddus was returning to Mon Cala for a special meeting of the War Council."

"Great," Raddek muttered as they drew nearer to his dreaded home-world, "The Admiral will be tickled pink when he sees us together. His son, the trash-collector, comes home with an adopted son, a wife and kid from a completely different species, and a ship full of escaped orphans from the Empire's prison camps. He'll be deliriously happy!"

"Will you proudly defend us from his displeasure, Marney?" Lyna asked him pointedly, "and will you acknowledge me as your wife in front of him?"

"You know I'll always be proud of you and the young ones, Lyna," her husband chided her, "and I don't give an electric eel's ass what my father has to say about it."

And, with that statement having clarified his position on the matter of his father, _The Polar Carp_ glided into its home space-port. After an absence of nearly fifteen years, Marney Raddek had finally returned home to Mon Cala.


	2. Processing Problems

3

 _ **Chapter Two: Processing Problems**_

Marney and Lyna, together with their children Rixxi and Sal, had herded the various orphans together and had managed to convince them to overcome their fear of the unknown and take a chance on the planet of Mon Cala. There were a few elderly mon calamari and quarren people among them, and these elders were extremely helpful in calming the children by explaining to them what was happening and where they would be going. Many of the poor little ones thought that they were going to be put in another prison camp or worse, and they were very mistrustful.

Marney's adopted son Sal had managed to form a bond with them during the voyage—he had played games with them and had sung them some popular Galactic tunes on his Sonic Star Guitar. He encouraged them along their journey, singing gently to some of the younger ones. Raddek had to admit, the boy was excellent when it came to working with the youngsters. Sal's help had been invaluable to him, for he felt confident leaving the kids in the teenager's webbed hands while he commanded the vessel.

They paraded out of the ship and through the space-port, to the curious gazes of other travelers. Their progress was blocked at the gate, where people were showing their planetary passports in order to attain entry into the world through passenger shuttles which carried people back and forth from the home space-port.

"Who are these children, please?" the gate attendant asked, "I need identification papers on them before I can let them through...planetary regulations demand it."

"Damn planetary regulations!" Marney exploded, "They're orphans, by Thorus! I sent an emergency message alerting the Calamari Council that they would be arriving. I specifically asked for a social worker to meet us here so that she could begin processing them and finding homes for them. If you need some names to contact, try my sister, Senator Raidlen Marne; and if you're in the dark about how to contact a social worker, then call my daughter, Kyara Raddus."

Marney Raddek had no patience for this kind of administrative ignorance. _What part of "emergency message" do these kelp-heads not understand?_ He thought furiously.

"We will of course take the mon calamari and quarren children immediately," the attendant answered, "the elders can accompany them to the planet...but the...others...will need to be properly vetted."

"Vetted?!" Marney exclaimed, enraged, "They're kids, for the love of the Gods! Call for Senator Marne immediately, and she will clear this up."

The gate attendant gave the troublesome Captain Raddek the same kind of look that she would give a misbehaving child, but she flicked a communication switch and made some inquiries nonetheless. The doleful stares of the children were no doubt shaming her into action, Marney thought to himself irritably.

As the attendant finished her conversation with the administrative geniuses, a young mon calamari woman with albino features ran over to the group.

"I'm here, Papa!" Kyara Raddus announced breathlessly, her red eyes sparkling like a glass of polar ice wine, "and I have the papers, Madam Arkris."

"I'll give you the mon cal and quarren kids, Kyara," Arkris explained to her hastily, "but I can't let in the others until their entire situation has been understood and documented. There are strict rules for unaccompanied youngsters—Mon Cala must not be seen in any way as supporting the slave trade, I'm told by a council rep. I've called for Senator Marne, but she's off-world at the moment, meeting with the Rebel Alliance."

"We may never understand their entire situation, Ark," Kyara pressed the woman, "They've been enslaved, and many of them have lost their parents...I'm afraid that our world's bureaucratic needs must be put aside. This is a moncalimaritarian crisis situation. The children will need care, at least until we decide which planet we're going to send them to instead."

"I'm sorry, Ky," Arkris responded sadly, "If it were up to me, you know that I'd gladly let them in, but it isn't...and so I'll have to ask Captain Raddek and his...er... _companion_ to bring the non-native children into the interrogation room."

Arkris had given Lyna a rather scathing look as she spoke the word "companion", and it was enough to send Raddek straight around the bend. Lyna attempted to calm him before his big mouth got them all into trouble, but her efforts were to no avail.

"I'll have you know, you bureaucratic naggle-fish, that this "companion" happens to be my wife!" Marney shouted at the hapless attendant, his voice loud enough to resound throughout the entire space-port, "and I'll be lanced by a laser harpoon before I'll allow you and your numb-bots to interrogate these innocents!"

Arkris pressed a button, and he knew that she was calling for the space-port security forces.

"Madam Arkris, wait a minute," Lyna interjected, "There's no need to arrest Captain Raddek—he's only trying to look out for the kids. We'll do what you want, but...could you call it something else besides "interrogation room"? It's scaring the hell out of the kids because they've just come from an Imperial prison camp."

Before Arkris could reply, a group of security guards rushed in and put hand-clamps on Raddek. They were followed by a large polar mon cal male in an admiral's uniform.

"Grandpapa, I thought you'd never get here," Kyara greeted him, "Can you help us? We're trying to get these kids processed, but we're having trouble and they want to arrest Papa."

"Give the non-native children to me, Arkris," the admiral ordered her, "I'll take them aboard my flagship while you're resolving the processing problems with the council. And as for this pot-bellied slime slug, you can toss his great big ass in a cell and throw away the key."

Admiral Raddus directed this last part of his statement towards the disowned son once known to him as Radka Marne Raddus. The guards bobbed their heads in acknowledgement and proceeded to haul the troublesome "slime slug" away, much to the consternation of his wife and children.


	3. The Admiral and the Trash-Man

_**Chapter Three: The Admiral and The Trash-Man**_

Marney sat in his cell, tapping his webbed claw on one side of the bench. Another inmate, a quarren, sat on the opposite bench staring blankly at the floor. The bipedal, yet sqid-like being was waving his chin tentacles hopelessly while the pointed flaps on either side of his face drooped in despair.

"And what are you in for, Brother Quarren?" Marney asked listlessly, "Were you attempting to smuggle orphans in as well?"

"No," the quarren responded, equally listless, "I'm in because I used the King's Royal Fountain as a toilet."

"An easy mistake to make," Raddek replied in a sympathetic fashion, "I used many things as toilets when I used to get rip-roaring drunk at the academy. Come to think of it, my own father used to get rip-roaring drunk when I was just a tad...I'll bet he blindly pissed on a few things himself in his day."

"Ah, well," his cell-mate mused, "as it is with the father, so it is with the son. My father was Quorr, and I am Qualle."

"Nice to meet you, Qualle," Marney affirmed the unfortunate wrong-doer, "and what did your father do?"

"He used the King's Royal Fountain as a toilet," answered Qualle, without elaborating any further on the matter.

The enchanting conversation with Qualle the quarren was interrupted when their cell door opened and a guard poked his head inside.

"Raddus," the guard beckoned him, "Come with me. Your father wishes to speak to you."

"It's Raddek, now," he corrected the guard, "Marney Raddek. I changed it to a more human-sounding name, just to bother my father."

The guard did not respond to his banter, but instead guided him silently into another room, where his father was sitting at a small table drinking a cup of seaweed tea. The admiral gestured to his son to sit across from him, pouring him a second cup of tea from a small brown urn.

As Raddek sipped the tea, his father stared at him with his big, bulbous eyes. He wished fervently that he could go back to Qualle the quarren. Finally, Charcorr Raddus spoke.

"You know, Radka," he said slowly and deliberately, "There have been times when I have wanted to string you up by the feet and use you as a weather balloon."

Marney lowered his eyes, unable to look his father in the eye. He felt like a young boy again. Why did the patriarch not just scream at him?

"I should leave you here in jail," the older man continued, "but your mother wanted me to ' _make an effort'_ as she called it. She thinks that I have been too harsh on you; but I would dare say that I have not been harsh enough. My son, The Empire's Trash-Man! Have you no sense of self-respect, my boy?"

"Not really," Marney replied, without looking up, "Not when I'm around you, at least."

"You can't blame your disgrace on anyone else but yourself," Raddus countered, "I had hoped to see some sign that you had grown up at last...but it is painfully obvious to me that my expectations have been disappointed yet again. You rescue orphans to give yourself a scrap of dignity, but even they cannot save you from your own shame."

Raddek finally tore his gaze from the floor and glared at his father with a smoldering rage.

"I don't rescue orphans for that reason," he argued, "I do it because I don't want them to have to grow up to be like me—a drunken failure."

"Exactly so," Raddus replied, as if his son's statement had confirmed what he had just been telling him.

Raddek could no longer keep his anger inside him.

"You hypocritical old sea toad!" he exploded, "How many times did you come home from the tavern drunk when I was a tad? I'll bet you have no idea how much pain and shame you caused your wife and family!"

"Yes, I do have an idea," Raddus replied evenly, "and that is why I no longer partake of alcohol. The damn stuff was brought to our planet by the humans, and it was used by the Empire during the occupation of our world in order to dull the spirits of the mon calamari people—to turn us into willing pets! I stopped drinking when we began to fight them, because I knew I needed my wits about me if I was ever to unshackle our people from their servitude. But where were you when our people were enslaved, Radka? When your family needed you most, you were off lugging trash for the very Empire from which we fought to emancipate ourselves..."

"That's not fair, _Admiral_!" Raddek yelled, pounding his fist on the table and spilling their tea in the process, "I had a family to support and protect...besides, I fought the Empire in other ways."

"You didn't fight them, you _worked_ for them, you traitor, and you still do! If you'd have really wanted to free orphans, you'd have picked up a blaster baton long ago...but you were too cowardly to fight for your family, or even your newest 'wife'...as you refer to that thing that you have in your crass indecency cross-bred with..."

Marney had endured enough. He stood up and pounded the table before summoning the guard and walking out on his father.

"What, you don't have enough courage to strike me?" Raddus called to him as he exited the door, "Some soldier of the Empire you are!"


	4. My Wife is a Wookiee

_**Chapter Four: "My Wife is a Wookiee"**_

Not long after Marney had returned to his cell, he received news that his father had ordered his release. Why he had done this, Marney was not sure but he suspected that his mother Rallen Marne had probably had something to do with it. She would have been furious at him for jailing his own son and no doubt would have given him a well-deserved scolding.

Regardless of the reason that he had been freed, Raddek felt that it would be a good idea to pass along his good fortune. He offered the chief guard bail money to spring Qualle the quarren from his cell, and promised that he would help him to get back on his feet by making him a member of his crew.

"He's a mad one," the chief told him, "but if you think that you can train him, then I suppose he's better off with you. Just keep him away from the King's Fountain."

"If he pissed in the King's Fountain, then why is being jailed out here on a space-port?" Raddek wanted to know.

"Because he was trying to run away from the police down on the planet," the chief explained, "He tried to take a passenger shuttle to one of the nearby worlds, but of course there was a warrant for his arrest and we recognized his profile. We think he was making a political statement against King Lee-Char and the Calamari Council by doing what he did."

"I doubt it," Raddek replied, "I think he's just a bit off mentally, if you know what I mean...which means he'd be perfect for our crew."

The chief grunted, and went to retrieve the crazy quarren.

"I want to stay here," Qualle objected.

"Come, Qualle, I have somewhere better for you...I can offer you a job," Raddek explained, "and you can be free."

Qualle sighed in resignation and followed his new employer.

As he stepped out from the space-port security station, Lyna was there to greet him.

"What's happened to the kids?" he asked her, "Are they still aboard my father's flagship?"

"Kyara had one of her staff take the mon cal and quarren kids and elders to the planetary social services agency, and she accompanied the others to your father's ship," she explained, "Sal and Rixxi have gone with her to help with the kids. Meanwhile, your mother wants us to come for a visit. Admiral Raddus gave me her contact information, and she says she wants to meet me and our two kids."

"We can't go until we know our other kids are safe," Marney told her, "I'll speak with her and explain it...by the way, Lyna, this is Qualle. He was sharing a cell with me, and I've sprung him. I'm trying to interest him in a job aboard the _Polar Carp_. Qualle, this is my wife, Lyna Kooloo."

Qualle bowed to Lyna, and she bowed back. This seemed to perk him up a bit, and he looked as though he were more inclined to take Captain Raddek's offer of work. Before any of them could say anything, though, a sandy-haired human with big, bushy facial hair approached them.

"Excuse me, Sir," he said to Raddek, "But are you the captain of _The Polar Carp?_ "

Raddek nodded, wondering what on Dac the hairy man wanted.

"Your father the admiral directed me to you, sir," he explained, "My name is Jalleck Braxton. I'm an engineer, and I'm looking for work on Mon Cala or on a ship that's based there..."

"You're hired!" Marney told him, "When can you start?"

"Uh...don't you want to look at my work record, Captain?" Braxton asked, bemused.

"I'm having the ship overhauled," Raddek elaborated, "and I really need a chief engineer. My last one was a droid who shut down due to a lack of service parts. If you can take charge of the overhaul and help me re-license _the Carp_ , I'll give you half my earnings from the last haul."

"It's a deal, Cap'n!" Braxton enthused, "Thank you. You won't be disappointed. I'm a great fix-it man but no one knows me or my work here on Mon Cala, so I've been having a hard time getting someone to take a chance on me. Oh...uh...there is one more thing. I've got a wife, and she usually helps me with my work..."

"She's hired, too!" Raddek said before Braxton could say any more, "and if you can take Master Qualle here with you and train him, then all three of you can split the earnings with me and my wife Lyna."

"Yes, Sir, of course," Braxton agreed, "But...uh...one more thing about my wife...she's...uh...a w _ookiee._ "

Raddek stared at the human, unable to believe his luck.

"Did you say, 'your _wife is a wookiee_?'" he asked, flabbergasted.

"Yeah," Braxton replied, "But she's very gentle, most of the time...if you don't annoy her. She and I escaped from her home-world, Kashyyk, after the Imperial Forces enslaved the people. Before then, I was just looking for a free world to settle on and I met a wookiee chieftain who insisted that I marry his daughter as a sign of friendship between us. I married Yabecca, and...well, here we are. Yabecca and I like water, so we decided to try this world."

"Do you have any kids?" Marney pressed him.

"No. We're both from related species, but not close enough for us to produce _younglings_ , as they're called on Kashyyk. Yabecca was kind of disappointed...I think she thinks I'm some kind of a dwarf wookiee and that I should be able to impregnate her," Braxton explained, shaking his head sadly.

"You want some kids?" Lyna asked excitedly, "We have two wookiee younglings and about three ewok kits. They're orphans from a prison camp. If Kashyyk is back in the hands of the Empire, then we can't send them there. You and Yabekka can adopt these ones!"

Jalleck Braxton stared at the odd couple, completely thunderstruck.


	5. Admiral Raddus' Flagship

5

 _ **Chapter Five: Admiral Raddus' Flagship**_

Yabecca, the wife of Raddek's new chief engineer, was yowling in recognition at the two wookiee younglings in front of her. The wookiee understood Basic, the lingua franca of the galaxy, but like most of her kind could not speak it. Instead, she used a series of low rumblings and growls to communicate. Most non-wookiees who did not understand their language might make the mistake of considering them "lower" forms of life. Those who did, however, soon learned that wookiees were exceedingly intelligent and adaptable in spite of the "primitive" level of their technology.

The younglings stared at her, clearly befuddled. The older one held out his hand and in a cautious, exploratory manner sniffed Yabecca's arm. They had determined that his name was Woolonn, and his younger sister's name was Chakreech. Chakreech was clutching Woolonn's free arm tightly, as though she intended to hold onto him no matter how much force was applied to separate them. Fortunately, however, no one here would ever consider such a cruel action; but Chakreech did not know that. Her experience of humans like Jalleck Braxton was that they had taken her away from her parents, put her in chains and beat her until she did what they wanted.

"Yabecca knows these younglings," Jalleck Braxton explained, "They grew up in a village near hers on Kashyyk."

Marney stood at a distance with Lyna, Jalleck, and Qualle in order to give the new family space to re-acquaint themselves with each other. They were aboard Admiral Raddus' large flagship, _The Profundity,_ where they had been shown briskly by a busy ensign to the rather spacious Civilians' Living Room. It was a large, cavernous space which looked more like a park than a room. It was filled with trees, plants, ponds, chairs, sofas, pools, playgrounds, games, and other activities evidently aimed at keeping guests occupied so that they did not bother the crew. It would have been especially interesting for the children, except for the fact that they were still traumatized from their experiences at the slave camp and were therefore not given to exploration of new places at the moment. The human and twi'lek children were seated silently on the grass, staring up at their odd elders.

"I'm not sure these wookiee kids are going to accept me as their new father, though," Jalleck continued, "their experience of humans has been of the Evil Empire variety."

"You have a very big task ahead of you, Jalleck," Marney told Braxton, "but at least we know the two kids will be in good hands."

"But what about the three ewok kits, Tob, Mika, and Tinu?" Lyna asked as she held tiny Tinu, who was clinging to her in terror, "We can't get to their world right now as it's under Empire influence..."

Admiral Raddus, accompanied by his granddaughter Kyara, entered the room in time to hear the last portion of Lyna's comment. Tob and Mika were sniffing the ground, taking care to stay near Lyna's feet in case they needed to climb up her to join their little sister.

"You could collect the trash for them and drop the ewoks off at the same time," Raddus suggested with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "After all, you and _him_ work for the Empire."

Lyna turned on her newly-met father-in-law ferociously.

"We don't make any runs to Endor; but nonetheless, you are wrong, Admiral Raddus!" Lyna cried, "We do not work for the Empire any more than these young children do. Your son has done more to re-unite families in his fifteen years of service as a trash-captain than your whole fleet of warships has done in the same amount of time."

"Our job is to fight battles, _my Lady_ Kooloo," Raddus retorted, "Not to run around collecting odd orphans here and there after the Empire has already done extensive damage to their worlds. You and my son have done much to aid the Empire, merely by disposing of their rubbish. It's an essential service for them, as they accumulate an inordinate amount of rubbish through their arrogant conquests."

Lyna's two head-tentacles, or _lekku,_ were fairly writhing in anger. She and the admiral had been clashing frequently since she had come aboard _The_ _Profundity._ Raddus had been studiously ignoring his son since _The Polar Carp's_ Captain had come aboard to check on the status of the children, and so Lyna had fiercely taken up his defense.

"How dare you accuse us of aiding the Empire, Sir!" Lyna growled at him, "My world was one of those conquered by them. Do you think that Marney and I _enjoyed_ raising our family under its iron fist? If we had not served them through our trash collection business, they would have enslaved us—and the mon cal orphans that we brought to this world would not have come home today."

"You are _paid_ by the Empire, little dancer," Raddus retorted furiously, "Don't try to tell me that you and— _Marney_ , as you call him—are slaves who have no choice! Radka could have come and fought with us, but he chose not to do so. In my books that makes him a coward, and it causes me great embarrassment to even have him aboard my ship."

"He is not a coward!" Lyna argued, baring her teeth at him, "Just because his courage finds another path to walk along other than yours does not mean that he has none..."

"Courage does not 'walk along a path', my dear twi'lek girl," Raddus lectured her, "It takes up a weapon and fights for what is right!"

"Perhaps his weapon is compassion," Lyna countered, "of which you seem to have precious little...you should be proud of your son, _My Lord Admiral_ , and you should save the embarrassment for _yourself."_

Raddus' big, telescopic eyes grew even bigger as his eyelids opened all the way. He was about to make a rebuttal, but his granddaughter Kyara put her arm around him.

"Grandpapa," she told him gently, "I wonder if you could keep your voice down, just a bit? You're frightening the ewoks."

"The ewoks!" Raddus snorted as Tob and Mika dashed around screeching madly, "They're barely sentient, Granddaughter! Even more primitive than the wookiees."

"Grandpapa, stop it!" Kyara chided him, "That sort of talk is beneath your dignity. Isn't that the kind of thing the power-mongers of the Empire said to our people when they enslaved us for a time?"

Raddus grunted, shifting his gaze slightly towards the floor; and he wisely decided to stop arguing with Lyna Kooloo.

"Come on, my dear clan members," Raddek chided them, "Remember what Mama said: ' _Candies and sea-shells for everyone, but only if you get along_ '. Jal, I don't suppose you and your wife would be interested in adopting the ewoks?"

Yabecca answered by yowling at them as she pointed towards the baby ewoks.

"Yab says she'll adopt the three ewoks," Jalleck translated for his wife, "They're a species which is distantly related to the wookiees, anyways. She doesn't want them getting lost in the mix—she's got a good heart."

"Good work, Yabecca," Admiral Raddus affirmed the female wookiee crisply, "I think that takes care of all the young ones, then. My lieutenant has helped Kyara to make inquiries and they have found five human families living on Mon Cala who are on their way up here to pick up the rest of the kids. They will foster them until it's been determined whether or not they have any surviving family members...and they're willing to take the two twi'lek tots as well."

"Yes, thank you, Grandpapa, for your help," Kyara enthused, "You've redeemed yourself enough that I can forgive your comments about the ewok kits. But Lyna, what about you? The twi'lek kids might feel more comfortable with a member of their own kind."

"No, I'm afraid that I can't raise them aboard a garbage scow," Lyna replied sadly, "They're very young. Sal and Rixxi didn't start working with us until they arrived at their adolescence...before that they stayed with my parents on Ryloth while Marney and I made trash runs. But I can't ask my parents to do that again, as they are growing older and my planet is not free at present. I will, of course, continue to search for the children's surviving clan members, but it may take some time. Since Ryloth is under the influence of the Empire right now, I must make the next best choice for them, which would be to stay here on Mon Cala for now with a human foster family."

Marney knew that it pained Lyna deeply to leave the twi'lek children behind with a completely different species than her own. She had been forced to make similar decisions before, because the ship was not equipped to keep young children on board for long. Because of this, he and Lyna kept their distance from the children after they had rescued them so that they would not begin to form a bond with any of them. Sal and Rixxi generally performed the "baby-sitting" task until a placement was found for the kids because the teens were young and not as likely to be viewed by the kids as possible parent figures. Still, Marney realized, their children were growing up, and it was becoming increasingly difficult for them to let go of their charges when the time arrived to do so. This run was no exception.

Salken Rale, Raddek's mon calamari son, was ushered in to the Civilians' Room followed by his clan-sister Rixxi, a light-green skinned twi'lek girl dressed in brown leather pants and a yellow shirt. Admiral Raddus had arranged for the two teens to take a tour of the ship as a reward for their work with the orphans.

"Papa," Sal said to Raddek, addressing him in the familiar now that he was not currently commanding _The Polar Carp,_ "Rixxi and I want to meet the families that will be taking our kids. We want to make sure that they're okay before we leave anyone with them."

"Of course, Rixxi, and Sal," Raddek responded, "You know we'll all do that for them."

"I have to admit, Radka," Raddus broke into their conversation, "You've got a good son here...even though he is an adopted orphan. I was showing him around the ship myself, and I've told him that if he ever wants a position in the space division of the Mon Cala Fleet that he should contact me."

"Thank you, Grandfather," Sal responded, "But I've told you, I'm working for my father at the moment. He saved my life, and my loyalty is to him."

"Yes, I know," the old admiral concurred, "Your loyalty is somewhat misplaced, Salken, but it is a good trait nonetheless; and it's why I'd like you to apply to our military one day. We need good soldiers to fight for the freedom of Mon Cala and the galaxy."

Marney felt the old anger arising within him at his father. Here he was, trying to lure his son away from him again! The admiral had already turned his older son from his first marriage, Brynn Melka, against him. The boy had joined the military at his grandfather Raddus' behest and had made it clear through infrequent communications with Marney that he no longer considered him his father.

Raddek could not blame his eldest son, for he had not seen him since he was seventeen years old. His eldest daughter Kyara, on the other hand, had made gargantuan efforts to keep track of her prodigal father by tracing him through the social services agencies that he visited with his rescued orphans. She had on occasion even traveled to remote areas to help him with the more difficult placements, trained as she was in social work and childrens' services. He knew how fortunate he was to have a daughter who was as devoted to him as Kyara; and Lyna's daughter Rixxi seemed to be emulating her older step-sister more as she came to know her.

"Sal wants to stay with us, Grandpapa," Rixxi said to The Admiral in an assertive manner, calling him by the same name as Kyara did, "because he wants to work with kids, not guns and things."

Raddus bobbed his head, and Raddek could tell that he was uncomfortable with a twi'lek girl calling him "Grandpapa". His father's discomfort caused him some degree of pleasure, he had to admit.

" _Serves him right_ ," he muttered to Lyna in a smugly victorious manner, "for being such a miserable old jellyfish."

The words were no sooner out of his mouth when the ship suddenly shuddered and shook violently, as though it had been hit by a blaster cannon's charge. Admiral Raddus was gone in a flash, having run up to the command deck to take charge of the ship.


	6. Surprise Attack

3

 _ **Chapter Six: Surprise Attack**_

 _The Profundity_ continued to shake and shudder violently for the next fifteen minutes. Marney and Lyna ordered everyone to stay low and hold onto the metal bars on the walls. Yabecca grabbed the two ewok kits in her strong arms and leaned over the two wookiee younglings. Salken and Rixxi herded the human and twi'lek children over to the walls so that they were away from anything that could fall and hit them.

The young lieutenant who had helped Kyara to contact the human families on Mon Cala entered and ordered them out of the room. She commanded them to sit in the passenger seats surrounding the area and buckle their seat-belts.

"Stay here until you're ordered to do otherwise," she told them in a no-nonsense tone of voice, before running off to man her station.

The next few minutes seemed to last an eternity. The emergency sirens were wailing and the walls in their area seemed as though they were going to break apart. They heard the sound of crunching metal, and it reminded Marney of the time long ago that his ship was attacked by smugglers. It had seemed then, as it did now, that they would not survive the attack. He knew, however, that his father was a far better commander of vessels than he could ever hope to be, and so he would simply have to put his faith in the Old Fish.

As soon as that thought of faith in his estranged father entered his mind, the crunching and shaking stopped.

"Everyone stay seated," he commanded his crew-mates and charges, "Wait until the lieutenant comes back and gives us the A-okay."

"Excuse me, Captain Raddek," Jalleck Braxton interjected, "But I should offer my services to the engineering crew...they may be in need of some help."

Raddek held up his hand in order to dissuade Jalleck from volunteering for the moment. Although it was generous of the human, he would not know the mon calamari warships as well as the regular crew and might even get in their way. Fortunately, the lieutenant returned and told them that they could go back to the Civilians' Living Room. Jalleck offered his help to her, but was politely refused.

"You can aid us best by staying in the Civilians' Quarter," explained the lieutenant, "The admiral will be very busy dealing with the damage reports, but he will try to pay you a visit when he can."

"Do you think it's an attack by the Empire?" Jalleck asked Marney, "Would they try re-capturing Mon Cala at this point?"

"I doubt it," Marney replied, "If they'd launched a full-scale attack, it wouldn't be over this soon. It's more than likely some half-assed marauding force that the Empire has manipulated into raiding us in order to wear us down. The Imperial Big-Wig Moff Tarkin was pretty pissed off with the mon calamari for throwing off their shackles. He was especially grouchy about my cousin Commander Ackbar, who was given to him as a gift-slave before he "betrayed" the Moff by running off with the rebel forces."

"Maybe that's why Raddus' ship was targeted," Jalleck suggested, "If he's related to Ackbar, then no wonder they want to cause him trouble. I'm sure Moff Tarkin doesn't want to be made a fool of any more than Emperor Palpatine does. It's not good to mess with those guys...speaking of which, Cap'n...how does the Moff think about you, then, if he hates your relatives?"

"He doesn't think about me," Marney explained, "and neither does anybody else. I'm nobody, Jal...Marney Raddek, trash-captain. That's who you'll be working for."

"Hey, suits me fine, Cap'n," Jalleck agreed, "I'm not much of an anybody, anyways. Hey, if this attack is over, do you think the admiral or the lieutenant or whoever would allow me to take your quarren buddy Qualle over to your ship and start the overhaul of your vessel? I was talking to your wife earlier and she said that droid that you used to use as an engineer is still on the shelf in your ship due to a lack of service parts. I could re-build it and re-program it, with Qualle's help...it turns out he's a computer programmer by trade as well as mistaking kings' fountains for toilets."

Marney stared at Qualle, dumbfounded. He had assumed that the quarren was a simple beggar, but evidently that assumption had been based on his own prejudice.

"I'm sorry, Qualle, I never knew you had that kind of a detailed education," he apologized to his former cell-mate.

"It's all right," Qualle responded, "I haven't worked for some time because even my own people believe me to be weird."

"Join the club," Marney commiserated with Qualle, "Okay, Jal. The droid is just a Trash-T2 unit, so I don't know that you'll be able to do much with it; but if Qualle can re-program it with you, more glory to both of you. We won't be able to get out of this over-sized can of my father's though, until everything is ship-shape."

The three of them sat down by the playground equipment while Sal, Rixxi, Lyna, Kyara, and Yabecca encouraged the children to play on it. The kids had all been sitting around terrified after the attack, and so they were trying to occupy them in order to help them feel less frightened.

They had not been playing long before the lieutenant swept into the room with a group of human families.

"The humans are leaving to go to another, more out-of-the-way world," the officer explained, "and they want to take the human and twi'lek children now. They feel that Mon Cala is being targeted by too much "special attention" by the Empire, to the point where they do not feel safe here. Please, Kyara, can you help acquaint them with the families as quickly as possible? We have a Passenger Vessel which can take them to where they want to go, but it needs to leave soon."

"Wait!" Rixxi cried out, "We need some time to get to know these families, to make sure that they'll be okay for the kids..."

"The social services of Mon Cala have already determined that," the lieutenant told them crisply, "The admiral has disabled the vessel that was attacking us, but there may be more on the way. Come on, people, let's move!"


	7. Spy Mission

2

 _ **Chapter Seven: Spy Mission**_

After three days of vigilance, the admiral finally granted them leave to depart _The Profundity._ There had been no further attacks, and the human families had left the area hastily with their newly adopted youngsters. Rixxi and Sal had been satisfied with the families' intentions and had cleared them so that they could welcome the kids into their families. Lyna had felt very guilty about letting the two twi'lek children go, but with two wookiee younglings and three ewok kits, she knew that they would all have their hands full.

Jalleck Braxton, Qualle, Yabecca, and the wookiee/ewok younglings had left a day earlier to begin work on _The Polar Carp_ and its defunct droid-engineer. Jalleck had continued to send reports on his progress to Captain Raddek, who remained on his father's ship as a courtesy. Even if they were barely speaking to each other, it seemed somehow wrong to simply leave him in the middle of a crisis. As it had turned out, Raddus had not even paid them a courtesy visit. It was, of course, entirely understandable under the circumstances, but it irked his son nonetheless.

Raddus did show up as they were boarding their shuttle to go down to Mon Cala to visit Rallen Marne, Raddek's mother. He briskly praised Kyara for her work placing the youngsters, ignored Lyna and the children, and unceremoniously pulled Marney aside to speak to him.

"Rad," he said to him, "I am conducting a meeting of the War Council today on board _The Profundity._ You tell your mother that all is well. If those pirates show up again to cause problems, we'll be ready for them...and we'll fire a blaster cannon straight up their miserable asses. How dare they challenge me and my forces? They're becoming more bold with every passing year, because they've been emboldened by The Emperor and his band of metallic misfits. But _everything is under control._ You be sure to tell your mother that."

"Yes, Admiral Raddus," Marney replied stiffly, "Will there be anything else?"

Raddus hesitated a moment before speaking.

"Yes, there is," he murmured softly, "There are a few members of the Calamari Council who have suggested to me that...your talents as the Empire's trash-man might be put to better use. They would like to use you as a spy, Radka. I told them that the idea was ludicrous, because you had a wife and family to look after. They came right back at me and said that you could leave your wife and children on Mon Cala, where they would be better protected. It would involve a great deal of courage on your part to accept the proposition, as there would be a high risk of torture and death if you were caught. I don't expect you to answer me right away, but after a few days' time you can contact me if you are interested...it would be a way to redeem yourself, my son."

Marney stared at his father in disbelief. He was caught between his anger at his father for even suggesting such a thing and his desire to win the older male's pride and approval for a change.

"So, Papa," he managed to say, "I guess that'd be a great way to get rid of me, huh? If I died spying for you, you wouldn't have to be so ashamed of me."

"Radka," Raddus replied, his voice lined with stress, "Once you are an adult, respect must be earned...that is the lesson that I have always tried to teach you, and I had hoped that at your age you might have learned it. You will never earn the kind of respect that you crave by wallowing in the Empire's trash. Your wife said that you fight the Empire with your compassion, by rescuing these orphans. Well, the Council sees fit to offer you another sort of opportunity. This has nothing to do with me being an inadequate parent, it has to do with your pride and self-respect. If you want to know the truth of it, your wife was partly correct: the shame is my own, and it has nothing to do with you. When you used to get drunk and screw up, it reminded me of my own similar failures with your mother and you two tads. I have been an exceptionally lousy father and husband, Radka, and that part of the equation was not your fault. Nonetheless, we can't un-do what's been done or re-do what's been undone in the past so we may as well do the best we can for the present...your mother and sister have forgiven me, and one day I hope you will, too."

"I don't know, Papa," Marney finally responded, his anger spent upon hearing his father's almost-apology, "I think Lyna'd kill me if I left her on Mon Cala and ran off to die. I've just got a new bunch of crew members, and I was hoping to continue rescuing orphans. If I do this spy-mission thing, I can kiss my rescue operations good-bye."

"Yes, but if you were to find information pertinent to the destruction of some of the Empire's bases, you would rescue more people; and you would prevent the children from being orphaned in the first place. Sometimes you need to think in terms of the bigger picture, Rad."

"I...uh...I'll think about it, Papa, but I can't promise anything right now. I have a family to consider."

Raddus nodded his head, and the younger male turned to go.

"Radka," the Admiral said before Marney walked away, "It's been a long time since you called me 'Papa'."

"It's been a long time since you called me 'son', Papa," Marney replied.


	8. Mama's Advice

3

 _ **Chapter Eight: Mama's Advice**_

Lyna and the two kids, Salken and Rixxi, were getting along famously with Marney's mother, Rallen Marne. Marney, on the other hand, was quiet. He was mulling over the offer that he had received from the Calamari Council through his father. He wanted to ask his mother about it, but not in front of Lyna and the two teens. He was afraid that his wife would become angry and say something unfortunate about his father in front of Rallen.

Rallen Marne was a slate-blue northern matron, strong in her nurturing but as tough and sharp as a laser harpoon when she needed to be. She loved her husband, Charcorr, but she was under no illusions as to his tendency to be a 'love-rover' as some of the polar mon calamari males were known. Charcorr had stopped drinking many years ago when he became the mayor of Nystullum, but after he became an officer involved in planetary defense strategies his duties took him on longer missions away from home and he saw less and less of his wife.

You're very quiet, dear," Rallen said to her son, "I love your wife, you know. I've only known her for about three hours and I feel as close to her as if I'd known her for three years. I'm pleased with your choice, and I don't particularly care that she's from another species. Is that what you're worried about?"

"No, Mama," Marney replied, "I knew you'd love Lyna and the two kids. It's not that; it's just that Papa offered me a job, and I'm trying to decide whether or not to take it."

Lyna and the children had gone into the other room to watch the multi-colored fish swim by the blue-and-green-lighted window. Here in the City of Nystullum, everything was underwater including half of the house. Lyna and Rixxi were staying in the upper, air-breathing portion, as they could not go out into the polar waters without a special wet suit for frigid temperatures and scuba gear to help them breathe. Lyna had no interest in getting wet, but Rixxi was excited at the prospect of going out into the water with Salken and her father. She was fascinated by the marine environment and wanted to observe as many fish as she could count.

Marney decided to talk to his mother about the so-called 'spy mission' while his family was thus engaged. He wanted to hear her opinion.

"What kind of a job is it?" Rallen asked suspiciously, "Not a job aboard _The Profundity_ , I hope. That would require you to leave your family behind, and that would not be a good idea for you at the moment, Rad. You need them to keep you swimming in a straight line, if you know what I mean. You've been doing so well with your rescue work—I want you to know that I'm very proud of you, even if your father isn't."

"Thanks, Mama," Raddek replied gratefully, "That means a lot to me to know that I haven't completely disappointed you. But this thing that Papa talked to me about...it was offered to me by the Calamari Council, through Papa. He said that they wanted me to use my position as an Imperial trash-collector in order to do some spy missions on the Empire...it would be dangerous, and Papa said it could end in torture, death, or both."

"Tell him no, Rad," Rallen interjected angrily, "Your Papa should be ashamed of himself for even asking you to do such a thing. The rescues that you do are dangerous enough without getting into stealing secrets from those monsters."

"He told me that it would be a way to earn back some of the respect that I lost after I botched up one of my first commands," Raddek explained, "and he said that much of his anger at me was really about him. I remind him about the lousy parts of himself, I guess. By the way, he told you not to worry about the attack that happened a few days ago...he's got it all under control."

"Yes, I'll bet he does," Rallen responded frostily, "or at least he pretends to have everything under control. But never mind him...why are you even considering this ridiculous offer? Surely you don't want to impress him that badly."

"I don't know, Mama, I'm of two minds," he told her, "One wants to just leave Papa behind in the mud and the other wants to do something to make him proud of me. And besides...I would be making up for the fact that I never came to Mon Cala to help when the battles for our world were going on. Papa says that I was a coward for not helping, and sometimes I think he's right."

"He's not right!" Rallen objected, "He's absolutely wrong. I was so glad that you missed all that enslavement crap, Rad. You would have hated it, and you couldn't have served in the Mon Cala military anyways because Papa drummed you out of it."

"While Mon Cala was being enslaved there was no military," Marney reminded her, "At least not on the planet. Only the rebel forces in outer space, which were based on the city ships of the mass exodus. I could have joined in their rebellion..."

"The rebellion is still going on, throughout the galaxy," Rallen replied, "and you have been doing your part by rescuing peoples' children. So stop tormenting yourself with misplaced guilt, Rad. You had a family to look after, and that was your first obligation. Don't you dare second-guess yourself, just because your father is piling all of his own emotional trash on top of you."

"He isn't really piling it on top of me anymore, Mama," Raddek told her, "he acknowledged his own part in all of it. I think he's been trying to make amends, in his own way. Maybe this spy mission is part of that."

"Don't you go off spying, Rad," she warned him, "It's not worth it. You won't uncover anything new, and the galaxy will lose a good man."

Marney bobbed his head slightly, as if agreeing with his mother. Secretly, however, he was considering the offer...but how would he explain it to Lyna?


	9. The Visit

8

 _ **Chapter Nine: The Visit**_

Marney led the way out of the underwater abode's exit tube. He needed no gear to help him breathe underwater and he required no wet suit in particular, although because the currents were extra-cold at this time of year he put on his winter water-suit. He was followed by his son Salken who, since he was hatched of parents from a tropical locale, had thinner blood and needed to wear a special protective wet-suit in these frigid waters. Salken's twi'lek sister Rixxi was completely decked out in protective wear and breathing apparatus from head to toe, of course. She was not from a "water-world", and although she loved to swim she could not possibly survive underwater without the aid of her gear. Together, the odd trio swam down to the City Square, where a statue of the sea god Thorus watched over the population.

Marney Raddek had been out-of-water for so long during his sojourn away that he had almost forgotten what it was to swim in a large body of salt-water. He and Salken had swum a great deal at the lake by their home back on Ryloth, but it was a small lake with only sunken logs and stones for aquatic infrastructure.

Here in Nystullum, the great city's aqua-structures were meticulously designed and stretched as far as the eye could see. Many of the governmental buildings had been converted into space-worthy structures and launched into space during the exodus, and as long as the Empire was a threat to their world the "space-city-ships" were to stay there in case some attack disabled the remaining planetary government.

While Charcorr Raddus had been mayor of Nystullum, he had overseen the city governance tower being transferred to _The_ _Profundity_ , where it had operated independently of the Empire-enslaved world. Now that Mon Cala was free of direct Empire influence for the time being, however, certain elements of the municipal government had been allowed to return to the underwater city from which they had sprung and _The Profundity_ was being used at present mainly as a war cruiser. A great deal of credit had been given to Mayor Raddus' "large-scale" and forward-thinking mind-set, which had helped to pull off one of the most spectacular escape-capers ever in the history of the galaxy.

The mon calamari technological expertise had managed to win the day eventually, but they all knew that they could not take their freedom for granted. Every citizen on Mon Cala had taken mandatory training classes in order to prepare them for any attack from any direction. The mon cals were skilled at working together as a team and it had turned them into a formidable asset for the Rebel Alliance, which was led by a human woman named Mon Mothma.

Marney led his two children into one of the remaining governmental structures in order to give them an educational tour. All the other buildings were used for businesses or were residential. The main governmental building was the Nystullum City Hall, and it was fully submersed in water. They swam in through the front door and were given a quick scan by the guards' underwater scanning device. As soon as they were all cleared, they swam over to the observers' gallery. Marney led them to a bench where they all sat down quietly. Although they were not able to speak their surface dialect, Marney and Sal could speak their original mon calimari language underwater using vocalizations such as high-frequency whistles and pulsed calls to communicate. The pulse waves were transmitted and translated into Rixxi's cone-shaped ears through a sound device inside her helmet. Rixxi in turn used a tiny sonar device to emit her own tones and pulse waves in order to communicate back to the two males. Although her ability to speak the language in this fashion was only at a very basic level, she seemed to manage to get her point across to them more often than not.

"This is where all the devious little politicians gather," Marney explained to them, "I think today they're debating whether to initiate a city-wide tax grab."

"[Click] them," Rixxi transmitted.

"She means, 'kick them', Papa," Sal translated on behalf of his sister.

Rixxi had practiced right along with her brother and step-father when they used to use the equipment in the small lake back on Ryloth. Marney had wanted her to be able to communicate to his people should she ever come to Mon Cala, as she finally had during this past week. It had also been important to teach Salken the old language, because he had not used it since he was a tiny tad. It had taken a while, but now Marney was glad that he had taken the time to teach his children their underwater language skills.

They listened to the politicians drone on for about ten minutes about taxes. Sal gave Marney a look which suggested they take off before they all fell asleep. Marney agreed whole-heartedly, but as they were swimming away a mon cal male in civilian attire suddenly darted up from the floor of the assembly hall. To his surprise, he realized that it was his father.

"Papa?" he called, "I thought that you were aboard _The Profundity_ shielding our planet from attack."

" _The Profundity_ and the other ships are in place and battle-ready," Raddus explained, "and I have sent out some gunships to scout the area to make sure there are no threats. At present, we're safe; and so I took the time to come down to Nystullum to brief the municipal politicians on the situation. I wanted to make sure that their city defenses are operating at full capacity, as our Fleet could be called upon to fight for the Rebel Alliance at any time. Mon Cala must be prepared to defend itself, Rad."

"You could have briefed them from the ship, Papa...is there some other reason that you're down here in civilian clothes at this time?"

"Yes, there is," Raddus replied irritably, "unfortunately, I can't spare the time to spend a whole week here visiting your mother, as you and your little family have been doing; but she wanted me to come down for at least one dinner with you, and so I used the City Hall briefing in my home town as an excuse...although I suppose as the admiral I don't really need one. I have something to tell you, Rad, and I owe it to your mother to do so in person. I'm sorry to cut the kids' city tour short, but I need you to return home and help your mother to prepare an early supper. I will be along after I have finished with these idiotic, tax-grabbing politicians."

"Didn't _you_ used to be one of those idiot politicians, Papa?" Marney asked in a mischievous tone, "When you were Mayor, I think they used to call you ' _Charc the Shark Raddus_ ', if I'm not mistaken?"

"Shut up, boy, and get home to your mother," Raddus grumbled as he swam back down to the floor of the hall.

Marney gestured to Rixxi and Sal to follow him, which they did reluctantly. They did not appear to be overly enthusiastic about their grandfather's order, but they knew that he called the shots on this world.

They swam back the way that they had come and arrived through the tube into Rallen Marne's home entrance pool. Rixxi surfaced first, taking off her diving paraphernalia before following her father and brother out of the pool. They walked through the dryer and stepped into what the polar mon cal people called "The Dry Lair" section of the house. Its grey walls were made of craggy stone, giving it the appearance of a cave. It was well lighted, however, and had many glassy windows through which one could gaze at the myriad of fish and other marine creatures that swam by.

As they trooped in, a surprise awaited them: Jalleck, Yabecca, the younglings, Qualle, and the newly programmed droid Trash-T2 had just arrived, only a few minutes before their Captain's return from the Nystullum City Hall.

The group had finally been invited down to the air-breathing portion of Rallen Marne's home, after Jalleck had hinted to Marney that he wanted to come down for a visit as a reward for his hard work. In the time that they had been working, Jalleck, Qualle, and Yabecca had made great progress with regard to overhauling and repairing " _The Polar Carp"._ The re-programming of the old droid, Trash-T2, had also been a success. Qualle and Jalleck had together given "TT2" as they called it, her own distinct, feminine personality.

Jalleck and the others had been doing a great deal of work during the past week—and all Marney had done was to supervise the process over the communication channel. He felt strangely about taking a holiday while his new crew members were working. He had not done that for a long, long time, but he knew that he owed his mother a good, solid visit after all the worry that he had put her through for probably close to twenty-five years.

To his surprise, Rallen had been more than happy to invite his new crew-mates to come down for a visit as well. She seemed to be much more open to other life forms now than she used to be when he was growing up; but he supposed that Nystullum, like everywhere else on Mon Cala, was changing from what it had been in the past. The more they became involved in the politics and wars of the Galaxy, the less parochial the mon calamari and even the quarren people could afford to be. Nonetheless, Rallen had given her permission for the crew to visit, and so the human, wookiees, ewoks, quarren, and droid had all arrived down via a special space-faring/submarine shuttle.

Rallen was the essence of hospitality, and was also fascinated by the new, other-worldly people. Rallen Marne was not a space traveler, and therefore had not had much contact with "other-worlders", other than the odd human or two.

"Madam Marne, it's an honor to be here," Jalleck told her politely, shaking her webbed hand.

"The honor is mine, Master Braxton," she returned his greeting, "and this wookiee is your wife?"

"Yes, Ma'am—Yabecca is her name...and please, call me Jalleck. These are our newly adopted kids, Woolonn and Chakreech the wookiee younglings, and the ewoks Tob, Mika, and Tinu," Jalleck explained, "Tob, Mika, and Tinu love me already, but Woolonn is not so sure. It'll take him a while to overcome his mistrust of humans after what they did to him at the prison camp. Chakreech is starting to come around, though...I think she at least knows that I'm not here to harm her."

"I'm sure that they will soon realize that you both care for them greatly," Rallen encouraged the couple, "I can see that immediately in your spirits."

"Uh-oh, Cap'n," Jalleck noted, "You never told me your Mom was a Spirit-Seer! I hope you can't see everything about me, Ma'am."

Yabecca grunted in response to her human husband's hope, slapping Braxton on the rear.

"I'm glad to see that you keep him in line, Yabecca," Rallen opined, "and no, Jalleck, you needn't worry...I can't see every little detail about you, although I'm quite sure your wife will enlighten me throughout our visit."

Jalleck peered at his wife in mock terror as the three ewoks jumped all over him excitedly. Woolonn and Chakreech, meanwhile, were sniffing at the unfamiliar surroundings. Yabecca yowled at them, pointing at the fish that were swimming by the window. The wookiees all put their noses to the window, as if trying to catch the scent of the odd creatures. While Yabecca and her younglings stared in fascination at the countless varieties of fish that populated the surrounding seascape, Marney decided to try communicating with the Droid to determine its level of sophistication.

"So, TT2," Marney said to it, "This is my mother, Rallen Marne. Mama—this is TT2, the droid Qualle and Jal have been working on."

"Yes," Rallen replied, looking at the droid with somewhat more trepidation than she did with the biological beings, "How do you do, TT2."

"Good day, Madam Marne," TT2 answered politely, "I am indeed glad to make your acquaintance. I can compact your trash for you, if you wish."

"You can compact rubbish, TT2?" asked Rallen, surprised, "Well, I think I'll give you mine, then."

Rallen ran off to collect her trash for TT2. The droid obviously operated at a very basic service level, which was how it had operated before the re-programming. That was fine with Marney, because the last thing he needed was a smart-ass droid on his ship. He was about to ignore the machine, but she spoke again without being cued.

"Captain Marney Raddek, you ought to tuck your shirt in," she said in a scolding tone of voice, "Show some respect when you're in your mother's household."

"What?" Marney exploded, "Hey, look, you can of nuts n' bolts..."

At that point in the mechanical conversation, Rallen returned with the trash. Qualle showed her how to feed it into TT2, and within minutes the trash had been worked down into a small chip.

"We recycle the chips to use them as energy for various ship functions," Qualle explained, "TT2 can compact and recycle just about any material."

"Amazing, Mr. Qualle!" Rallen exclaimed, "and did I hear TT2 scolding my son just now, about tucking his shirt inside his trousers?"

"Yes, Madam Marne, I did," TT2 answered on her own behalf, "Mr. Qualle programmed me to behave like his mother."

"Great!" Marney muttered, tucking in his shirt, "so I guess we've got a Mama-Droid, then!"

"I am not your mother, Marney," the Droid corrected him, "If I were, I'd kick you in the pants."

Rallen chuckled at the little Droid's bossy features. Marney was rather less enchanted by it, but at least TT2 had been programmed for some practical tasks. Lyna quickly recruited the droid to help them bring items to the dinner table.

He was grateful when his mother decided to stop waiting for her husband the admiral and went ahead with the supper. The group collected around a small, stadium-like mini-tub which could be either filled with water from below or kept dry. Tonight, it was dry and they all sat on the circular bench around a wooden table. Marney, TT2, and Lyna had aided Rallen in heaping the table with all sorts of seafood delicacies, sea-berries, kelp chips, seeds, and home-grown vegetables of every sort. It was arranged as a buffet so that people could take what they wanted and leave the things that they did not want. Marney was so hungry that he brought a big pile over to his section of the table and began to munch ravenously.

"Radka!" his mother admonished him, "You will say the blessing before you eat!"

Marney ducked his head, embarrassed. Of course, he was expected to chant the ancient sea blessing to Thorus. He thought a moment, trying to remember the words of the old prayer. Before he could remember anything, however, there was a clanging sound which announced the arrival of someone coming into the house from the entrance tubes below. A dark, slate-blue form arose from the pool entrance to the house. Out of the water, Charcorr Raddus climbed the steps to stand dripping wet before them.

"Well, well, look who's here at last!" Rallen greeted him with a trace of irony in her voice, "You finally decided to join us, Charcorr?"

"Yes, Wife," he concurred gruffly, "I have a message for Radka, but it will wait until you are finished with your dinner. May I join you?"

"Step through the dryer, please," Rallen replied, "Our otherworldly guests aren't accustomed to sharing a meal with a dripping wet fish."

Raddus obeyed his mate, stepping through the Quick-Dry door and removing his jacket as he moved to join them. Without being asked, he took over his son's role as Blessing-Chanter and sung a whistle-like tune of gratitude to Thorus before unceremoniously helping himself to a huge pile of food and wolfing it down.

"Have you not eaten today, Dear?" she asked him pointedly.

Raddus grunted as a response, while Rallen introduced him to the guests.

"He already met them, Mama, on _The Profundity_ ," Marney explained as he finished his own meal.

The others ate their meals somewhat more slowly, except for Yabecca and Woolonn, who continued to eat ravenously as they took more and more food from the diminishing buffet. Woolonn's little sister Chakreech, on the other hand, nibbled uncertainly at the strange food which had been placed in front of her. When they had all finished eating, Rallen swept the remaining table scraps from the table and deposited them neatly into TT2. She arose to go and clean up in the kitchen, but Charcorr motioned to her to remain seated.

"I'm sorry, Ral, I don't mean to be rude," he apologized to his wife, "But I need to tell our son something, and I need to get right down to it."

"Aha," Rallen replied approvingly, "I see he's back to being 'our' son again, Charcorr! Have you finally gotten over your stubborn-as-a-sea-slug grudge-tantrum?"

"All right, Rallen, that will do," Raddus chided her, "Radka. Has your Engineer nearly completed the repairs to your ship?"

Marney's heart began to pound. He had a feeling he knew what was coming next.

"It'll be ship-shape in the next week or so, Admiral," Jalleck reported.

"All right," Raddus replied, "Radka Marne Raddus, I'm drafting you into service for the Rebel Alliance, on the authority of the Mon Cala Naval Forces, Space Division. You're going to be using _The Polar Carp_ to spy on the Empire."

"Oh, no you don't, Charcorr Raddus!" Rallen stood up, enraged, "How dare you draft Radka after having banished him from his home community for almost fifteen years?"

Rallen Marne was an imposing figure when her ire was aroused, and because of her greater height she towered over her husband. Charcorr sighed, and rose to meet his wife's stern gaze with an iron determination reflected in his yellow eyes.

"I'm sorry, Ral," he said to her, "The Calamari Council, in consultation with the War Council, has ordered it. If he doesn't go, he and his crew will be thrown in jail."

"The Councils have no authority over Radka's crew!" Rallen barked furiously.

"Uh..." Jalleck interjected, "I'm sorry to contradict you, Madam Rallen, but...actually, they do...at least, over me. I've fought for the Rebel Forces in the Reserve Army of Andillon—that's the little moon that I'm from—and so I must accompany Captain Raddek on his mission. Yab, I'm sorry, Hon, but I'm gonna have to find someplace for you and the kids to stay while..."

Before Jalleck could finish his sentence, Yabecca stood up and roared at him.

"Now, listen, Sweetie, be reasonable!" Jalleck argued, far less forcibly than his mate, "You know I can't bring you and the kids along..."

Woolonn and Chakreech stood up and yowled, joining their adoptive mother.

"Uh...Cap'n, they all want to join us," Jalleck explained, "Yabecca hates the Empire and so do Woolonn and Chakreech, having just come from a prison camp. But we can't bring the ewok kits along, Yab..."

"I'll look after the ewok babies," Rallen told them, resigning herself to the fact that the mission was going ahead, "it will give me something noble to contribute while my dearest son and his crew risk their lives for a scrap of information...but Lyna, Rixxi and Sal, my cherished daughter-in-law and grandchildren! Surely you will stay here and help me with the tiny creatures?"

Lyna put her arm around Marney and shook her head sadly. Rixxi and Sal, who had been silent up until now, stood up.

"If our brother and sister wookiees are going, we must go too, Grandmother Marne," Rixxi announced to her devastated new grandmother, with whom she and Salken had been building a close bond within the past week, "We're seventeen and eighteen years old, so we're old enough to make our own decision about it."

"I'm sorry, Rallen," Charcorr apologized as his wife buried her head in her hands, "for all of this."

"Get out, Raddus," Rallen ordered him, "I don't want to see you right now...and you're _not_ welcome to enter into my water-den. You'll have to find another pool to sleep in tonight."

"I have duties aboard my ship anyways, Wife," Raddus told her sadly as he stood up and departed the family home.


	10. The Moffett Mokk

4

 _ **Chapter Ten: The Moffett Mokk**_

Admiral Raddus' war cruiser, _The Profundity,_ was under attack. His son Marney Raddek had been drafted into temporary service aboard the big ship under the lowly rank of Ensign, in order to help the crew man the laser canons and other weapons systems. His garbage scow _The Polar Carp_ had been stowed away in the Docking Bay/Service Hangar while Jalleck, Qualle, TT2, and Yabecca had been working on finishing the repairs. At present, however, Jalleck had been assigned the task of aiding the crew to keep the shield generator at optimum efficiency aboard _The Profundity_ with the help of TT2. The rest of the _Carp's_ crew, to their considerable chagrin, had been confined to the Civilians' Living Room.

Admiral Raddus was seated in front of a large transparent window in the Ordinance Pod on his movable command chair and command-box system. He belted out orders to his crew and to the rest of the fleet, which presently consisted of a motley mix of various classes of warships and gunships from Mon Cala and other worlds, their Starfighter Squadrons, and a group of ships known as Hammerhead Corvettes.

A blast was fired from one of the marauding enemy vessels against the flagship, and _The Profundity_ shuddered. The shield generator was up and operating at maximum efficiency, but the MC75 Cruiser was taking a beating anyways. The Admiral had succeeded in repelling the Empire-hired Mercenary Forces away from Mon Cala, but they continued to engage in short, vicious attacks before retreating further and further out of the Calamari system and into Imperial Space.

Ensign Raddek was fairly sure that they were attempting to lure Raddus and his fleet far enough along into enemy-controlled territory that they would be ripe for a surprise attack from the actual Imperial Forces as opposed to their paid minions. Mon Cala was at present still a stronghold for the Rebel Alliance and, after having thrown off the various occupying forces over the years, its people were determined to never again fall under the complete control of The Galactic Empire. Since it was positioned in The Outer Rim territories, it held an advantage over many of the subjugated Core Worlds of the Inner Rim, but attempts to draw the Mon Calamari inwards towards Emperor Palpatine's ever-reaching, iron grasp never seemed to abate. Admiral Raddus, however, was too clever to allow his ego to lead him into the brutish ruses of pirates.

"All ships," he called out, "Retreat, for the present time. We will waste no more fire-power on these moronic imbeciles. All Star-Fighter Squadrons, regroup and return to the hangar once we're out of range. Let them think they've won, while we bide our time developing a new strategy. Prepare to jump into hyperspace on my mark!"

As soon as they were out of range of the Mercenary Forces, the Star-Fighters returned to the Hangar Deck and the Admiral ordered his fleet into hyperspace. After a period of time, the Fleet emerged at a Rebel Star Base known in the Telaris star system as Kelmoon.

"Bring us into orbit around the lunar base," the Admiral ordered his crew before gesturing to Marney to follow him.

He followed his father, feeling like an incompetent fool. He had been a long time away from the Mon Cala Planetary Defense Fleet, and there had been many advances in technology since then. There were also now many more Humans working alongside the Mon Cals since the aquatic world had chosen to support the Alliance fleet by supplying them with warships; and these Rebel Humans seemed to deeply respect Admiral Raddus.

Marney could not help but feel proud of his father for his courageous leadership in the struggle to free the galaxy of oppressive forces. He very much wanted to follow the older male's example and to his own relief, he had at least been able to do his assigned job by following the orders of _The Profundity's_ crew. Nonetheless, he was embarrassed to admit that he would have had not one single clue what to do if he had been in command of the weaponry. His father seemed to sense his thoughts as he led him into his office.

"So, Ensign Raddek, can you see yourself commanding _any_ section of this vessel?" he asked as he sat down at his desk, "or at least serving under those who did?"

Marney remained standing, hanging his head sadly.

"No, Sir," he admitted, "I don't think I'm anywhere near intelligent enough to be a permanent crew member aboard _this_ ship."

"Well," Raddus said to him with a trace of disappointment in his voice, "if that's your assessment of yourself, then I suppose I'd better not offer you a commission with us aboard _The Profundity_. I was going to do so as a peace offering to your mother, but I'm not recruiting anyone to my crew who has such a low opinion of himself."

"There's no reason why you should, Sir," Marney addressed the admiral stiffly, "and anyways, I thought the War Council had drafted me as a devious spy."

"That's why I've brought you here," Raddus informed him, "to give you your orders. I assume you've got enough command presence to relay them to the rest of your crew once you get back aboard _The Polar Toad-fish."_

 _"The Polar Carp,_ Sir," Marney corrected him in a resigned tone of voice.

Raddus looked at him disdainfully for a moment, and then began to explain his mission in a business-like fashion.

"Captain Raddek, you are to take _The Polar Carp_ and the rest of your crew to an Imperial Base on Rondirak 12, at the edge of the Middle Rim territories. It's a small planet full of forests, swamps, and small salt-water lakes...not terribly important strategically. Most of the Idiot Marauders who have been challenging us are being armed there and sent forth to create whatever havoc they are capable of in Rebel strongholds. It's presided over by a nit-wit Governor who calls himself Moff Malken Mokk...but he's really more of a Mini-Moff to the Empire and so he'd be perfect for you on your very first spy mission for the Rebel Alliance. The Rebel Council, in consultation with the War Council, would like you to do a trash run there and perhaps entertain the troops...I'm told that you and your family like to play instruments, sing, and dance as part of your routine to charm the Imperial soldiers into giving you orphans to take away with your trash. You do that at Rondirak 12, and take whatever kids you can find there. We want you to do everything just as you normally do...but we also want you to do one other thing. We'd like it if you can take this little chip with you and insert it into the central control panel of the Main Base. The chip is so tiny that you can barely see it, and it's been placed in a small insertion gun for you. We have your instructions written into the holographic program-screen on the wrist-band that we're going to give you. You follow the map and the instructions on where to place the information chip. It will feed us continual visual and audio information about what is taking place on the Base from every angle, and it will help us to plan our defense strategies against the Mercenary forces more accurately. It's a dead simple mission, Rad; but if you can prove to us that you can do it, we'll give you more important assignments. Are there any questions?"

Marney stared at his father, slightly overwhelmed by the " _dead simple mission_ ". Raddus was ordering not only him but his whole family to risk their lives in this covert "operation" on a world governed by a Joke-Moff.

"Admiral," he asked anxiously, "Is this thing really necessary? If I'm going to be asking my crew to risk their lives, then I want to know for sure that if something goes wrong we're not dying for shit-all."

"Your crew won't be risking their lives, Captain, you will," Raddus told him, "They're to stay with the ship, after you've infiltrated the Base. Once you've completed your mission, you can leave. Your crew can either go without you or pick you up at a prearranged location of your choice. If you plan it right, it should work without a single mishap...the troops on that swamp-ball spend half the time drunk, like their lurching little leader, Moffett Mokk. After you've inserted the chip, you shouldn't have any problem escaping to our own little covert spy base on Rondirak 12; and you can use one of our agent's mini-Starfighters, called a Minista, in order to catch up with your ship—just in case they are forced to leave without you."

Marney sighed, wondering whether it would really be as simple as that.

"Won't the Imperial soldiers discover this 'information chip', Papa?" he asked, dispensing with formalities, "I mean, they must have programs to detect that kind of thing."

"It's a new technology, and those morons aren't likely to find it until we've already collected a substantial amount of information. We're hoping they'll dump a shit-load of pertinent info into our laps through their drunken banter alone. You get your quarren computer programmer to explain it to you, Radka, because _I've_ got to get back to the real-world business of fighting for the Alliance. Good Luck with your new job."

"Yes, Sir," he responded, saluting his father and walking out the door without a single word of farewell.

 _After all,_ he reasoned, _My own father thinks I'm a complete joke...something like the Alliance's version of Mini-Moffett Mokk._


	11. Hero of the Hour

3

 _ **Chapter Eleven: Hero of the Hour**_

The overhaul and repairs to _The Polar Carp_ were finally complete, and so the small band of newly-recruited spies departed from the Docking Bay/Service Hangar of _The Profundity_ without delay in order to "pick up the trash" on Rondirak 12. The admiral had told them that their agent on the planetoid had arranged with the Base for them to be given safe passage to haul away the trash.

"I don't know, Cap'n," Jalleck admitted once they were out of range of _The Profundity,_ "something about this mission doesn't feel quite right to me. It seems more like it's a training exercise, or some kind of mock-assignment."

"Seems that way to me, too," Lyna agreed with the recently-appointed Chief Engineer, "Sort of like a test. I don't care what your father says, Marney, we're not going to let you 'infiltrate' this base alone. We need to work together as a team."

Raddek sighed. He knew that they wanted to help him, but really this was supposed to be his mission. _The Polar Carp_ was only being used as a ruse to gain entry to the Base.

"Lyna, you know that your main job is to keep the kids safe," he told her, "If I get captured, your orders are to take the _Carp_ and get out of there."

"So now you're giving stupid orders—like your father?" Lyna asked angrily, "Jal and Yabecca can take command of the vessel, and Rixxi and Sal will help them. I'm your wife and your First Mate, Master Marney, and I'll be bog-draggled if I'm going to let you do this on your own."

"TT2 can help me," Marney retorted to his wife, "We may as well use her, since she's been such a pain-in-the-ass to me so far with her scolding and nagging. She's a little trash compactor, so she'd be the perfect spy-partner to bring along."

TT2, a floating, cylindrical creature with blinking pink lights, glided over to her mon calimari captain. The crew always referred to the droid as "she", since her personality program was patterned after Qualle's mother Quille.

"Captain Marney Raddek," TT2 chided him, "You should listen to your wife. Admiral Raddus is nothing but a big bloat-fish for giving us such a dirt-bag of an assignment."

Qualle followed his creation onto the scow's bridge.

"Mistress Lyna," Qualle interjected, "May I make a suggestion? Rather than you risking your life for this rather ridiculous mission, why don't you send me in your place? I have no quarnlets at home and since I have joined the crew TT2 has become my child. I must go to protect her and to make sure the Captain keeps his dumb ass out of trouble...besides, I hear that Emperor Palpatine keeps a pristine, crystal fountain on Rondirak 12. I must leave a special gift for Palpatine in the Emperor's Fountain."

"It makes sense, Cap'n," Jalleck agreed, "I mean...the part about Qualle going with you, not about him pissin' in the The Big Pal's fountain. You keep your mind on the mission, Qualle, you quirky ol' quarren!"

"Qualle, my quarren Squid-Master," TT2 commanded him, "If you urinate in one more fountain, I will be forced to report you to your mother...and then the ink's really going to shoot out into the water."

"Yes, TT2, but you see my mother is back on Mon Cala," Qualle explained patiently, "and you and I may get our brains blown out protecting Captain Marney. There won't be time for maternal reports."

"Yes, there will, Master Tentacle-Beard," TT2 argued, "Your mother has implanted me with an information chip so that she can keep an eye on your antics. I sort out what is important for her to know and download it automatically into her little, mechanical spy-box. She calls it QQ2, from the initials of her son and husband. She's been using it for years to keep an eye on you two."

"Brilliant," Marney said wryly, "Well, it's evident to me, then, that Qualle and TT2 are my spy-mates. Lyna, I need you to command the _Carp,_ since Jal and Yab may need to do some lightning-fast repairs if you guys get shot at trying to escape."

"Very well," Lyna agreed grudgingly, "but if you people don't return I'll come back to kick your trashy little backsides."

With his wife having clarified her intent on the outcome of the mission, Raddek decided to leave it at that. He knew he needed to develop a plan to get himself, Qualle, and TT2 somewhere near the central control panel of the Imperial Base, but according to the map and instructions given to him by his father it was nowhere near the trash compactors and pick-up bays. It was also likely to be heavily guarded, which was no doubt why _The Gracious Admiral_ had referred to the mission as _dead_ simple: Marney would simply deliver the chip just as the guards were shooting him dead.

He continued to mull over the problem in his mind, and he did so for the entire journey. At last, however, they arrived at Rondirak 12 and Raddek ordered them into orbit around the small world. The time for pondering his fate was over, and he was going to have to do _something._ In desperation, he gathered the crew around him and asked for their opinion. He set up a hologram of the central base and relayed the map instructions to be set up in a 3D landscape. The crew stared at it intently.

"There's no way to get to the central base from the trash depot," Lyna noted in frustration, "How does your fool of a father think you will get in?"

Salken raised his hand. Since the brightly colored orange-and-white mon calamari boy was fairly quiet and did not often offer his opinion, Raddek wanted to encourage him to contribute.

"Sal," he acknowledged the boy, "I want to hear what you think. I really value your perspective on things...so what's your take on all this?"

"A concert, Papa," Sal said to him eagerly, "You said that when Grandfather was telling you about all this, he suggested that we all entertain the Imperial Troops. There's an atrium pictured on this lay-out, probably where the Moff-Mokk rallies his troops and gives them their orders for the day. Its location is central to the base, and it would be the perfect venue for us to give the concert. Me and Rixxi could belt out some tunes on my Sonic Star Guitar, and Mama and you could do your weird 'Chain-up-the-Fish' dance to get the soldiers laughing. Then Mama and Rixxi could do a _real-live t_ wi'lek dance for the troops; and while they were being wildly distracted by that, Papa, you could tip-toe off with Mr. Qualle and TT2. You'd lurch down the hall pretending to be drunk, and encourage any guards present to go see the twi'lek girls doing a strip-tease. Then you get Mr. Qualle to insert the chip so that it's done just right, while TT2 pretends to be cleaning the control panel. Then you go running back, tell a bunch of silly jokes to finish the show and we all take off on the _Carp,_ 'Mission Accomplished'. Then you go back to Grandfather and say, ' _Piece of scallop-cake, Papa!_ ' and his mouth will fall open like a toad-fish in mating season...and you'll be the Hero of the Hour for a change!"

"Sounds good to me, Sal," Marney agreed, "it's better than any half-assed military strategy I've managed to come up with in the past two days."


	12. Stormy and The Smug

3

 _ **Chapter Twelve: Stormy and 'The Smug'**_

 _The Polar Carp_ glided into the trash depot on Rondirak 12. The crew immediately set to work bringing the compacted trash blocks into the loading bay of their ship. TT2 aided them by piling the slabs on top of a hover-dolly and pulling them in. There weren't enough for a full load, and so they would have plenty of room for the smaller pick-ups in and around the base.

Things seemed to be proceeding in a routine manner until an Imperial stormtrooper, dressed in his white head-to-toe armor-suit, peppered them with questions about where they had come from and why they were bothering to do an extra trash run when the regular trash scow had been by just last week.

"There's been a call for an extra run," Raddek explained to the stormtrooper, "but I don't know—I'm just following orders, man."

Marney had never liked the fact that you couldn't see the real eyes or faces of these armored individuals—they looked like droids, but as far as he knew the armor housed an actual living being inside them.

"I'm not sure I believe you," the stormtrooper stated flatly, "What was your last destination? Where, _specifically_ , did you come from?"

"Look, I've shown you our papers, Stormy," Raddek replied as nonchalantly as he dared, giving the trooper a nickname to make him seem less intimidating, "We just came from The Outer Rim."

" _Where_ in the Outer Rim did you come from? Which world, Fish? Could it _possibly_ have been _Mon Cala_ , the Rebel stronghold?"

Marney thought that he might as well tell Stormy at least part of the truth.

"We came from Kelmoon," he finally blurted out.

As soon as the word was out of his mouth, Marney knew that he had made a rather large mistake. It would have been smarter to tell him that they had come from Mon Cala, as he was quite obviously a mon calamari and it would not have been a surprise. It was too late to change his answer, however, because the connection between himself and the Rebel Alliance had just been made.

 _By Thorus_ , he thought, _some spy I am!_

"Kelmoon?" Stormy replied, "That's a rebel base! Captain Marney Raddek, I'm placing you under arrest on suspicion of being a double agent for the Rebel Alliance."

As Stormy put hand clamps on him, Lyna ran over to them in alarm.

"Sir, what are you doing? We are loyal workers of the Empire! We've hauled their trash for years!"

"The rest of you fools can go about your business," Stormy retorted, "I don't want to waste time and resources on you; but this fish that you're working for has definite ties to the Rebel Alliance. Did you know that, twi'lek girl?"

Lyna exchanged glances with her husband. She knew that she would need to play her role as a disinterested crew member if they were all to avoid arrest.

"Really?" she answered with a yawn, "I don't know. Me and the others here are just working for our pay. This idiot Ocean-swimmer hasn't even paid us in over three weeks, so I don't care if you haul his cheap ass away."

"Good acting, Wife-of-a-Fish," Stormy retorted, "but I'm afraid we're not as stupid as you think here on Ron 12. Did you really think we'd let you bastards waltz in here and stuff a micro-chip in our central control panel? From what I hear, you're planning to put on a show for the Moff. Great idea—I'd love to see you dance. Once you people are finished collecting your trash, you can come to the central base to pick up this piece of double-crossing trash here and you can try to convince the Moff to let him go as you strip your clothes for him."

Stormy left the scene abruptly, pushing Raddek ahead of him in a rough manner. He knew from the clicking sound behind him that Stormy had a blaster pistol pointed straight at him.

He was placed in the back of a prisoner's shuttle and the door was sealed tight. The back of the shuttle was dark, but he could feel the presence of another person...most likely a human.

"Who's there?" he asked, shaken by the fact that Stormy seemed to have been expecting them and even more disturbingly, had known all about their so-called "secret" mission.

"Nobody special," came the bored response to his anxious question, "but my sniffer tells me I got a fish as a cell-mate...I hope you brought the chips and vinegar, 'cause I'm starving here."

"Are you...working for the Alliance?" Marney asked hopefully, desperate enough for guidance on what to do next that he was willing to ignore the disconcerting implications of the fellow's menu choice.

"No...I guess you could say that I'm in business for myself at the moment," the man replied, "among other things."

Raddek surmised that he was a smuggler who had been caught transporting some illegal substances; and if so, he no doubt deserved to be in prison. His voice held a brash ring of arrogance in it, which inspired the mon cal captain to continue his new Rondirak 12 tradition and give the man a nickname.

"So, Smug," he addressed him casually, "What did you try to bring in here?"

"Oh...nothing much," The Smug answered, "just some freeze-dried wookiee milk. I was doing it more as a favor for a friend, but then my brilliant co-pilot found out the milk was going to feed a bunch of wookiee slaves here. He promised me he'd rip both my arms off if we didn't attempt to rescue a few."

"You...you rescue slaves, too?" Raddek asked, flabbergasted, "or at least, your co-pilot does?"

"My co-pilot is a wookiee," retorted The Smug, "and it's not a good idea to piss off a wookiee. So, I went in to spring a few...they got away, but I got caught. By the way, I'm not a smuggler—secret transport services, I prefer to call it—and don't call me 'Smug' or you'll piss _me_ off. The name's Solo—Han Solo."


	13. Prisoners of the Empire

3

 _ **Chapter Thirteen: Prisoners of the Empire**_

Marney and Han Solo were brought to a holding cell at the main base. There was a twi'lek female already staying there, and at first he thought for one awful moment that it was his daughter Rixxi. As he looked more closely, however, he realized that this greenish-brown-skinned woman was much older than Rixxi. She had similiar facial features to the teenage girl, but unlike her was dressed in a traditional twi'lek dancer's outfit.

"Hey, there," Han greeted her, "I'm Han Solo, and I think that together, you and I can come up with a brilliant escape plan."

"I am Oola," she informed him, "I've been enslaved and taken away from my family on Ryloth. They use me as entertainment around here."

"Stick with me, Honey, and you'll see some real entertainment," the Smug One said in a swaggering tone.

Marney had stopped calling him 'Smug' to his face, but in his mind the human had retained the moniker. For some reason, the man's overconfident attitude reminded him of his younger self when he was a hot-shot captain for the Mon Cala Space Fleet. He wasn't sure about Han himself, but his friend the wookiee sounded as if he was of the courageous variety; and best of all, Chewbacca was still _at large and in charge_ of Han's vessel. He wondered if it might be possible for Yabecca to somehow track him down and work with him to bust them out of this place. If the guards on Ron 12 tended to get as drunk as his father had said they did, then there might be some hope. So far, however, Stormy had not been displaying the requisite incompetence needed by them to accomplish such a feat.

They had not been at the facility for long before they received a visit from another, more familiar twi'lek female.

"Lyna!" Marney cried as she was escorted by one of the guards over to his cell, "How did you get them to let you in here?"

"I've promised to put on a show for the man you and your father call ' _The Moffett_ _Mokk_ '...and you'd better not call him that to his face, Marney. They weren't as dumb as we thought they were! They were ready for us, and they knew all about our plan. I think someone must have _chipped_ our ship with the same sort of damn info chip that we were supposed to use on this place. So much for your father's brilliant idea!"

Lyna was about to say something else, but stopped suddenly as she caught a glance of their twi'lek cell-mate.

" _Oola_!" she cried in recognition, "Is it really you? Have we actually stumbled upon you, my dear daughter's half-sister?!"

"Lyna," Oola responded, "You must leave at once. If they have not jailed you yet, they will. There are many more stormtroopers here than there used to be, because Moff Tarkin is coming here as a special guest...I hope Rixxi is not here with you, because they will enslave her as well. Mokk plans to present Tarkin with some gift prisoners, in order to impress him and make him think they've been doing a good job here."

Oola and Lyna broke into their own language, chattering with each other as excitedly as they dared. As they did so, Marney took an old-fashioned pen and notepad out of his jacket pocket. He quickly wrote a note on it in the Rylothian langauge, telling Lyna about Chewbacca the wookiee and Han's ship.

" _Get Yabecca to talk to him_ ," he wrote, as Solo peered over his shoulder, " _His friend Han is my cell-mate, and he tells me that Chewbacca is piloting a ship called 'The Millennium Falcon'_."

"Who's Yabecca?" Han whispered to him, evidently skilled at reading the Rylothian alphabet, "I sure as hell hope it's not a female wookiee or Chewie will ditch us and run off with her."

Raddek ignored him and quickly deposited the note in Lyna's pocket. She put her hand in her coat to acknowledge that she'd received it, but she did not look at the note as the sound of a trooper's boots were once more resounding across the floor.

Stormy walked over to the cell with yet another prisoner. To Marney's dismay, it was Qualle.

"Moff Mokk wants another piece of sea-food to present to Tarkin," Stormy explained as he opened the door and kicked Qualle in the backside, sending him sprawling across the floor of the cell.

"You're pretty talkative for a stormtrooper," Solo quipped.

"Shut up, Smuggler Solo, or you'll be served to the wookiees as their noon-day meal."

"I told you, I'm not a smuggler," Solo objected, "I'm in the business of Secret Transport Services."

"Not anymore you're not," Stormy told him sternly, "Once we nab your wookiee co-conspirator we'll impound your ship and send you down to the salt-yards to join the rest of the slaves."

"Man, what's happened to this place since the last time I was here?" Solo complained as Stormy grabbed Lyna by the hand and led her away, "Suddenly it's turned from a lair of drunks into the Hub of Imperial efficiency."

Qualle was sitting in the corner with his head buried in his hands.

"Captain Raddek, I am so sorry!" he said to him, "On our last rubbish-stop, I found The Emperor's Fountain and..."

"Qualle, we don't have time for that kind of nonsense right now!" Raddek chided him angrily, "They're probably going to arrest the rest of the crew—man, are we lousy spies, or what? We were fools to bring the kids with us."

"Yab and TT2 located a spy device which was implanted on our ship, and TT2 shut it down," Qualle explained, "They thought something was up when the stormtrooper revealed that he knew all about our plan. After that was accomplished, Jalleck and Yab left Lyna, TT2, and I near the base's prison facility before taking _The Polar Carp_ and flying away back into space in order to keep the young ones safe. When I got arrested, TT2 zipped off in her own direction, and Lyna stayed with me to make the deal about dancing for Moffett Mokk. Somewhere along the line, we hope to rescue you."

"Forget me!" Marney exploded, "I've screwed things up again, and so have you! Damn...you and I should have stayed in prison back at the Mon Cala Spaceport, Qualle."

"I wanted to stay, Captain," Qualle reminded him, "but you insisted that I work aboard your ship."

Marney growled in consternation. So far, just about everything had gone wrong. _Dead simple mission, my ass!_ He thought furiously.

"So, Qualle," Solo inquired, "What'd you do to the Emperor's Fountain?"

"You don't wanna know, Solo!" Marney roared, "And to top it all off, Qualle, I forgot to bring along the insertion gun with The War Council's damn info chip in it...not that it will do any good now that the Empire knows all about it!"

"I agree, Raddek," Solo concurred, "You guys really are lousy spies."


	14. The Dance of Serpents

6

 _ **Chapter Fourteen: The Dance of Serpents**_

Stormy had brought Han, Oola, Raddek, and Qualle to stand before Moff Mokk in the atrium at the central base of Rondirak 12. He had left them there under the custody of Mokk's soldiers and departed.

Moff Malken Mokk was a short man with longish black-and-grey hair and a goatee-style beard. He wore an Imperial uniform, but he had also added his own multi-colored sash, evidently because he wished to bring a dash of flair to his drab uniform. His men were rather haphazardly dressed in partial uniforms, some with their jackets un-done. These were the soldiers from the mercenary forces which were being used to lead incursions into the Outer Rim, Marney surmised.

"My dear friends of the Alliance," Mokk introduced himself in a grandiose manner, "I am Moff Malken Mokk, and I am the Governor of Rondirak 12 and its surrounding regions..."

"By 'surrounding regions' he means anything in orbit around the planet," Solo muttered.

"Excuse me, Captain Solo, but I am speaking!" Mokk scolded him, "Please, do not interrupt or you will find yourself joining your wookiee friends in the salt mines. Today, prisoners, I have good news for you: I have chosen the four of you lucky individuals to be given as gifts to our Special Guest Visitor, Moff Wilhuff Tarkin!"

Mokk paused in order for the prisoners to marvel at their good fortune before continuing his speech.

"You are being chosen because we believe you each possess special properties, which will hopefully impress upon the Moff the importance of our work here."

"Oola, your talent as a dancer is of course legendary, and so you were the perfect choice as a 'soft gift' to the Imperious Wilhuff Tarkin."

Han was about to make another of his witty comments, but Mokk intervened quickly before he could open his mouth.

"Captain Solo," he addressed the smuggler, "You are being chosen for your devious talents as a 'secret transport servant'. I trust you will enjoy your new service position and work hard for the Moff."

"Master Qualle," Mokk called out to the quarren, "I'm afraid you have sorely tested our patience. You left the Emperor a rather unfortunate gift in his Imperial Fountain, and so we wanted to return the favor: you are to be served to Palpatine as his favorite dinner dish...I am told he loves squid."

Raddek stared at Mokk in horror, but Qualle seemed to take it all in stride.

"Oh, well," he replied, "It's been nice knowing you, Marney Raddek. I hope The Big Pal enjoys my taste."

Moff Mokk was not finished with the prisoners yet. He turned his attention to Marney.

"Captain Radka Marne Raddus, alias Marney Raddek! We know you well throughout the sector, as a trash-man of some note. It's well understood by us that you rescue children along with our trash, and we have allowed it when it has been convenient for us to do so. But now, my dear Captain Raddek, you are being led to a higher purpose: Moff Tarkin expressed a special interest in you because you are the son of the infamous scoundrel, Admiral Charcorr Raddus. In addition, you also just happen to be the cousin of the Moff's escaped slave, Gial Ackbar. I understand that Ackbar is now serving as a Commander for the Rebel Alliance."

Raddek's heart began to pound in fear. He had no doubt as to what Tarkin would do to him, as a punishment to his father and Commander Ackbar...not that it would be much of a punishment for either of them if Radka Marne Raddus were to meet his demise, but it would definitely be a terrible loss for his mother Rallen and his sister, Senator Raidlen Marne.

As for Commander Gial Ackbar, he had made it clear to his cousin Radka many years ago—at a time when they both held the rank of captain—that he would not associate with him as long as he drank excessively. Radka had felt upset about his cousin's decision, as they had once been very close friends as children; and since Gial never seemed to be particularly bothered by his Uncle Raddus' similar drinking habits, the young Radka had been forced to come to the conclusion that his southern cousin looked down upon him.

He pushed aside all thoughts of his original family, for it was too painful to contemplate. He knew that he needed to maintain his dignity in the face of this threat, if only for the benefit of his immediate family, Lyna, Rixxi, and Sal. He wondered where they were right now and if they were safe. He knew that Lyna had volunteered herself to do a show for Tarkin so that she might make one last-ditch attempt to rescue her mate; but that hope seemed to be fading fast as a herd of floor-pounding stormtroopers arrived upon the scene, led by a tall, thin man dressed in a grey Imperial uniform.

"Governor Tarkin!" Moff Mokk exclaimed, "At last, he's here...I do hope he'll be impressed by our efforts here."

"I wouldn't hold my breath," Solo muttered, as Mokk glared at him.

Mokk was given no opportunity to retort to Solo's impudence as Tarkin marched up to Mokk and stopped just short of him.

"Governor Tarkin," Mokk greeted him, "I hope you have had a pleasant journey."

"Mokk," Tarkin snapped, clearly impatient with niceties, "Your facility is a disgrace. Your men are barely dressed, and half of them seem hung over from a late-night drinking binge. I think it's high time that Imperial Troops take over this pathetic little world of yours and turn it into something that can really take a bite out of The Fish Planet, among others."

Mokk appeared crest-fallen. His aspirations to impress the Moff had obviously been crushed, but he soldiered on nonetheless.

"Moff Tarkin," he said, "I know my men are a bit...er...rough around the edges, but you see that's the secret of the success of Rondirak 12. We send out the tough-guys in order to better deal with those rugged rebels."

"You're a fool, Mokk," Tarkin taunted him mercilessly, "I hope you've neutralized the 'info-chip' threat?"

"Yes, indeed, Moff Tarkin!" he cried, delighted to have an opportunity to regain his dignity, "My Chief of Security will show you what we are doing to protect our facility."

Mokk turned a great big viewing-screen on and to Marney's surprise, his wife Lyna was onscreen along with Stormy and TT2. She was dressed in a plum-colored, traditional twi'lek dancing outfit, evidently ready to put on a show for the Moffs. Stormy was supervising the droid as it put the finishing touches on a shield which had been set up to protect the central control panel—the same one into which they were supposedly going to insert the info-chip.

"What are you doing, Chief?" Mokk asked Stormy, "Could you explain it to us?"

"Sure thing, Moff Mokk," Stormy responded politely, "I have recently captured the spies' droid, TT2, and re-programmed it. It has just now put up a state-of-the-art, localized shield which will stop all unauthorized personnel from tinkering with _any_ aspect of this base's central control systems."

"Excellent, Chief!" Mokk praised his stormtrooper, "Please come and join us for the show, and bring Captain Raddek's ravishing wife with you. Moff Tarkin, you are in for a treat!"

"Oh, marvelous," Tarkin scoffed in a bored tone, "All right, let's get this silly thing over with. I am not particularly in the mood for entertainment, but I will watch because of the twi'lek dancers...I hope they're more competent than most of your mercenaries, Mokk. By the way, is that my new pet fish?"

"Yes, Governor Tarkin," Mokk replied eagerly, "This is Radka Marne Raddus, son of the fish-ogre Charcorr Raddus. He's also the cousin of your former pet, Gial Ackbar."

"Ah, yes," Tarkin said, strolling over to the prisoners and poking Marney with a baton, "My dear slave Gial, who betrayed me and ran off with the rebels. As for Admiral Raddus, I would have preferred to have owned his daughter, Senator Raidlen Marne. She would have been the better prize; but I suppose we'll have to make due with the Garbage Carp. I would like a special holographic video taken of this creature being turned into fish-sticks and fed to your grimy little men, Mokk. Then, I would like one copy sent to Raddus and one to Ackbar, if you please. They may not be particularly bothered by the loss of their most embarrassing family member, but I believe the symbolism of the act will have the desired effect upon them."

"Yes, Moff Tarkin!" Mokk crowed, "And I suppose you will want to deliver this fountain-fouling quarren, Qualle, to the Emperor himself?"

"No, my little Moffett, I'll let you kill, package, and freeze the squid-food for Palpatine. Send it to him on one of your salt transports..."

As Tarkin and Mokk bantered back and forth about the fate of himself and Qualle, Marney felt as though he were going to be physically ill. This was not the way he wanted to go...being fed as fish-fodder to the mercenaries. He wondered if his father or even his cousin would feel anything at all for him when they each received the hologram.

His musings were interrupted as Stormy strode into the room with Lyna and the re-programmed TT2.

 _TT2 has experienced a short shelf life_ , Marney thought ruefully, _and maybe all of_ _us will as well_.

Lyna walked past the two Moffs to her husband and boldly embraced him, to the disgust of Moff Wilhuff Tarkin. She ignored the militaristic governor as she handed Marney his son Salken's glistening white sonic star guitar.

"This is a gift from Sal," she murmured softly, "You sing your heart out for us, Marney Raddek, and Oola and I will dance. Let's song-storm these Moffey guys."

"Sure," Marney agreed softly, taking his son's guitar with deep reverence.

He understood that this might be his last time to be with Lyna before he died; but he did not want his wife to know that, and he especially did not want her knowing how he was going to die. She would be too upset and would probably want to rip Tarkin's throat out.

Lyna was at present bowing to Moff Tarkin.

"Sir," she asked him respectfully, "May we begin entertaining you?"

"Yes, of course," Tarkin replied in a much more enthusiastic tone than the one he had used with Mokk, "I think we can make the time."

While Mokk was ushering Tarkin to his chair, Lyna gestured to the prisoners.

"We need to really distract them," she whispered, "Oola, you and I will perform the _Dance of Serpents_ for them. Can you stand to do that?"

Oola grimaced, but nodded her head in compliance.

Marney's multi-directional vision caught a glimpse of Han Solo exchanging a quick word with Stormy. Suddenly, he felt a glimmer of hope inside him, but he was not sure why.

"Qualle," Lyna commanded, "I need you to perform quarren love calls as background music for our dancing. Marney will play guitar and sing a song that he and I wrote called "Sea Snake"...and Captain Solo, can you sing?"

Han looked at her in horror, as though he would rather languish inside one of the Emperor's torture chambers than to do what she had just suggested.

"I don't sing," he informed her, "and I don't dance...especially not in front of moffs and stormtroopers."

To Marney's surprise, Stormy opened TT2's back hatch and brought out an instrument.

"Here, Han, you can bang on this," he said, throwing Smug a cylindrical object made from animal hide, "It's a wookiee mating drum. I confiscated it from Yabecca while I was interrogating the crew."

"Fabulous," Solo muttered sarcastically as he took the drum with great reluctance, "I get to be a part of the fish-fried talent show."

Marney stared at Stormy in complete shock. How had the stormtrooper gotten hold of Yabecca and the crew? They were supposed to have escaped into space. His anxiety skyrocketed as he contemplated the idea of the kids being interrogated by those Imperial pit vipers. The hope that he had felt a minute ago evaporated into suspicion as the thought entered his mind that Han might actually be working with Stormy for the Empire. It seemed to him that Solo and Stormy had displayed a hint of camaraderie. On the other hand, he reasoned, Han seemed like the kind of man who would want to do things his way rather than to be dictated to by Imperials. He decided that he would give Smug the benefit of the doubt for now, because he might be helpful later on if they were to have any chance of rescuing the kids.

"Stand up straight while you're playing for Tarkin, Marney," TT2 ordered him as the performers made their way up to the atrium's large stage, "and to answer your question, I haven't been re-programmed so much as extra-programmed."

Marney glanced at TT2, confused. Any re-programming should have wiped her memory clean of Qualle's mother's influence on her personality. He wondered why Stormy would want to keep the personality aspect of the droid operational; but there was little time to contemplate the matter. Stormy brought out his blaster pistol and began to push the dawdling prisoners forward.

"Get going, you miserable batch of shark's bait!" he bellowed loudly, as if trying to distract their attention away from TT2's strange comment, "Moff Tarkin doesn't have all day to wait for you!"

As they were ascending the steps to the stage, Han managed to whisper to him surreptitiously, "Hey, Raddek...Chewie's just made Yabecca his girlfriend, but it's not us they'll be busting out."

Marney's heart skipped a beat upon hearing Han's words. Lyna must have managed to get his message to Yabecca, and it sounded as if there might be some kind of plan in the works...if indeed Yabecca and the rest of the crew were still free.

Marney dared not dwell on the faint possibility of escape. _After all,_ he told himself, _how much damage could two wookiees do to an Imperial military base?_


	15. The Charge of the Wookiees

3

 _ **Chapter Fifteen: The Charge of the Wookiees**_

Marney took to the stage nervously and began to strum the sonic star guitar experimentally, before launching into a full-voiced rendition of the song that Lyna and he had written many years ago, a nonsensical ditty they called "Sea-Snake". It had been written simply to entertain soldiers at taverns, so that they could build up a rapport with them and hopefully gain their cooperation in smuggling orphans out of their facilities.

Han sat down with his drum nearby, but did not touch it. He seemed to be waiting for the proper moment to begin the beat.

Qualle stood behind the dancers, serenely warbling quarren love calls. He seemed to be not the least bit perturbed by the prospect of ending up on the Emperor's dinner plate, but unfortunately Marney could not say the same of himself. He pushed the thought of Tarkin's chilling order concerning his fate to the back of his mind so that he could concentrate on his song.

He performed the song as if he were playing it not for Tarkin and Mokk, but for Lyna and all of the kids—Sal, Rixxi, Woolonn, Chakreech, and the three ewok kits who were thankfully being cared for in relative safety back on Mon Cala by his mother Rallen Marne. Passionately, he belted out the chorus:

 _Sea-Snake, Sea-Snake, your fangs are sharp_

 _oh-so-sharp, oh-so-sharp_

 _you rip apart the carp, the carp,_

 _the Ice-Fish Polar Carp!_

Marney swung into the next few verses as Lyna and Oola began to perform a dance that was both serpent-like in its twists and turns and seductive enough to capture the audience's attention. He knew that Tarkin was not attending the show to listen to his silly little sea-shanties, but he put his mind and heart into the weird song anyways:

 _Sea-Snake, ocean quake!_

 _Rumble-tumble waves_

 _never anger Water-Snake_

 _her slither-mind it raves!_

 _Singing, Sea-Snake sails_

 _sailing, Sea-Snake sings_

 _songs of sunset she impales_

 _setting fire to its wings!_

He finished it off with a couple of repetitions of the chorus, accompanied by TT2. The "extra-programmed" droid had apparently decided that she needed to get in on the act and was supplying harmonious background music that complimented his song. Marney had no idea what number he would perform next, and so he began to sing the song all over again in Lyna's soft Rylothian version of the tune. As he sang, Qualle warbled in the background with TT2's musical accompaniment. Han finally joined in with a heavy pounding of the cavernous wookiee mating drum, which produced a far-ranging echo.

Lyna and Oola were still managing to hold the audience captive with their intricate movements in spite of the odd background music. Tarkin and Mokk appeared to be entranced, as were all the soldiers, the half-dressed mercenaries and intricately armored stormtroopers alike. It was as if they were all starved for music and entertainment of any kind.

Then, just as the group was finishing its act, there was a great crashing noise and the ground shook.

"That's our cue," Han said to Marney, "Grab your people and run."

The doors to the atrium gave way and hundreds upon hundreds of huge, furry beings charged into the room madly. Tarkin began to shout out orders, and Marney knew that they had an escape window of only a few minutes at most.

He took Lyna's hand and jumped off the stage.

"Shoot them, you idiots!" Tarkin yelled at the dazed soldiers, but unfortunately for them the wookiees were armed and had the element of surprise on their side.

A huge, brown-furred wookiee wearing a sash full of ammunition was leading the charge. He growled to the others to open fire at the stormtroopers; but the troopers were quick to recover, and returned the favor.

Han and Oola took refuge behind a pillar while Marney, Lyna, and Qualle grabbed chairs and used them as shields. Marney covered Lyna while she ducked behind the pillar with Han and Oola. As Marney was moving in the same direction, however, he felt a painful blast hit his right shoulder.

"Marney!" Lyna cried, pulling him towards her.

Lyna tore a strip off of her dancing costume and with Qualle's help dressed the wound as best she could. Before long, they were joined by Rixxi and Sal, both of whom were armed. Rixxi gave her laser rifle to her half-sister Oola and knelt by Marney in order to apply pressure to his wound.

"It was an old-fashioned bullet pistol that did it," Lyna observed, "probably from the one of the mercenaries' guns. He should be all right, but we need to get him some medical attention...infected wounds can be especially fatal for mon calamari people."

TT2 joined them presently, after having dodged the gun-fire in order to bring the two wookiee younglings, Woolonn and Chakreech, to the relative safety of the spot behind the stone pillar. Qualle called his droid over to aid him while Han Solo convinced Sal to give him his rifle.

"Papa!" Sal cried, crouching beside Marney after having been freed of his weapon by the Smug, "I'm here, and so is Rixxi. We're all right, and you will be too...we're here to rescue you."

"TT2!" Qualle commanded the droid crisply, "Consult your medical program and use your extraction instrument to get the bullet out."

TT2 did as she was told, and inserted a metal tool of some kind into Marney's wound. The bullet was pulled out with great efficiency, causing Marney a jolt of fiery pain. Along with the pain, he felt a great sense of relief descend upon him; for he knew now that Sal and Rixxi were still free, even if they were in terrible danger at present. He felt that if he died here and now he would at least be surrounded by his family and not slaughtered like an animal in order to feed the Empire's insatiable appetite for blood.

Rixxi took some antiseptics out of TT2's compact "medicine chest" and applied it in and around the wound before applying stronger bandages than the make-shift one that Lyna had provided.

Han and Oola, meanwhile, were doing an excellent job holding off the soldiers with their newly acquired weapons. They were aided in their efforts by a rag-tag group of half-dressed mercenary soldiers, who to everyone's shock joined Han and Oola and began to shoot at the stormtroopers.

"Are the mercenaries fighting for the Empire or the Alliance?" Sal shouted, confused.

" _Some_ of them have switched to the Alliance, or whatever we are," Han shouted back as he shot at the advancing stormtroopers, "a buddy of mine started a rumor that the Empire will be laying them off soon and that the Rebel Alliance will pay them double what the Empire did."

"We need you to cover us while we take Papa back to the ship," Sal called to the fighting troop, just as Yabecca thundered into their midst.

She picked Marney up without a word and called to her younglings to follow her.

"Lyna, you and Rixxi and your boy—go now!" Oola yelled at her over the sound of the gun-fire, "Han and I will keep the enemies occupied."

Lyna did not argue with her friend, but instead ordered the two teens to come with her as they followed after Yabecca.


	16. Back to the Carp

4

 _ **Chapter Sixteen: Back to the Carp**_

Yabecca ploughed through the swamp purposefully, followed closely by her younglings, Woolonn and Chakreech. The injured Marney Raddek was slung over her shoulder like a bag of seeds. He was in great pain, but managed to lift his head slightly so that he could see how the others were faring. TT2 had hovering capabilities and was able to fly beside the wookiees effortlessly. The exercise was not quite so effortless for Lyna, Sal, Rixxi, and Qualle, who lagged behind and needed to run to catch up with them. It was not an easy feat in a muddy bog.

Marney felt as though he was slipping back and forth between consciousness and oblivion as he bounced up and down on Yabecca's furry back. His head felt dizzy and his breathing was becoming labored. He had not realized that the ships had been hidden so far away from the base. He supposed that it made sense for his crew to keep them well off the trodden path, but at the moment it made for an excruciatingly long journey. He felt guilty about leaving Han and Oola to fight the stormtroopers on their own, but since he was injured there was not a thing that he could do about it.

He felt himself slipping out of consciousness and into the darkness.

When he awoke at last he was in a berth aboard the _Polar Carp._ His shoulder had been re-bandaged, and an intravenous needle had been inserted into his arm. TT2 was monitoring him, and Lyna was beside him holding his hand.

"I'm sorry, Lyna," he murmured, "I got you and the kids into this mess...and to top it off, I screwed up the mission."

Lyna shook her head emphatically.

"Marney, the mission was made to be screwed up," Lyna comforted him, "the central control panel wasn't anywhere near the trash pick-up points. The War Council must have known it, since they gave you the holographic map. You rest now, my love. I'm proud of you for being brave enough to make the attempt."

"I think it was more stupidity than bravery," Marney corrected his wife, "but thank you, Lyna, for staying with me through all this. Most women would have left me behind in the muck by now."

"Then they would have been very unfortunate to have lost a hero like you, Marney," Lyna said firmly, putting her arm around him affectionately.

He squeezed his wife's hand in response before dropping off to sleep again.

He awoke some time later to find that the _Polar Carp_ was in flight again; but something felt a little strange, as if the ship was bigger than it had been before. He peered ahead of him and saw the concerned face of his Chief Engineer, Jalleck Braxton.

"How are you doing, Cap'n?" he asked, "I'm sorry I haven't been in to see you before now, but I've been pretty busy fixing the _Polar Carp_ after one of the Empire's fighter crafts shot us down."

Marney sat bolt upright in his berth, angry at himself for sleeping while the _Carp_ and her crew were in danger.

"Marney, you aren't getting out of bed," the ever-watchful TT2 commanded, "We don't want to have to lug you back again when you pass out."

A wave of dizziness hit him, and he growled in frustration. He obediently placed his large head back down on the pillow of the dry-berth. Like most mon calimari, he preferred to sleep in an underwater bed, but he knew that he needed to let his wound heal before he could do that. _Besides,_ he thought, _we're under attack from every which way and this is hardly the time for sleeping._

"Don't worry, Captain," Jalleck reassured him, "TT2, Yab, Qualle, Lyna, and the kids have been working extra hard and everything is ship-shape. Lyna's in command right now, and we're on our way to rescue the young and elderly wookiees while the fighting is going on. We...uh...we had to kind of attach ourselves to the _Millennium Falcon_ in order to get ourselves into the air, but that's only a temporary fix until the ship has been fully re-charged."

"Who is piloting the _Millennium Falcon_ , then?" Marney asked, "Han and Chewbacca are both back at the base fighting the Imperials."

"Yabecca is piloting it," Jal informed him, "after Lyna gave us your message about Yab and Chewbacca getting together, Yabecca found and contacted him...some time before we got shot down. Chewbacca escaped with the _Millennium Falcon_ , but he managed to find us again and he told her that his main mission was to rescue the wookiee slaves. He said that if she helped him to spring the prisoners, he'd help her to spring you guys."

"How on Dac did they do that?" Marney wondered aloud.

"Chewbacca and his pal Han Solo were here to smuggle some weapons into Rondirak 12 under the guise of delivering freeze-dried wookiee milk. The guy that's dressed up like a stormtrooper helped them to get the load delivered into the hands of the wookiee slaves by pretending to arrest Han and bringing the weapons to them in a prisoners' shuttle. Apparently, he's bought off a lot of the mercenaries that were guarding the wookiees as well, so springing them was a piece of cake."

Marney stared at Jalleck, his big eyes growing wider.

"You...you don't mean Stormy?" he stammered.

"Is that what you call him?" Jal replied, "Well, according to Chewbacca, he's working with him and Han to free the wookiees...and hopefully free up some of the local trade routes that the mercenaries have been messing up with their Empire-sponsored raids."

Marney remembered that Han had told them that his buddy had begun a rumor about the Empire laying off soldiers and the Rebel Alliance offering to pay the mercenaries double what the Imperials had paid them. It made sense to him now that Stormy was _the_ _buddy_.

"But wait a minute..." Marney queried, "...if Stormy is working with the rebel wookiees, then how is it that he knew about our spy-plan? He arrested me as soon as I arrived on Ron 12."

"TT2 can probably tell you more about that, Cap'n," Jalleck answered, "she worked with 'Stormy' for a little while, and he added a bunch of programs to her. Look, I'd better get back to work...we'll be landing near the base, and we'll need to move fast to rescue as many wookiees as we can. I'm assuming I have your permission to do that, Cap'n?"

"Go to it, Jal," Marney ordered, "You and the others do all you can to help them."

Jalleck nodded before leaving Marney alone with TT2.

"Okay, TT2," Marney said to the little droid, "out with it. What have you been up to with Stormy?"

"We're not dating, if that's what you mean," TT2 answered, "but I guess it would be all right to let you know that your mission hasn't been completely screwed up...at least, not by me. I put your Papa's silly chip into the control panel before Stormy and I sealed it with the localized force field. They'll have a hell of a time getting it out, if they even discover it. Did you know that you left it sitting around on the ship, Marney? It was incredibly careless of you."

"I didn't know that I was going to get arrested the minute I stepped off the ship," Marney explained, flabbergasted, "But...TT2...did I hear you right? You got the chip in?! The actual info-chip that my father gave me? Is Stormy working for the Rebel Alliance, then?"

TT2 whirred and clicked, spinning about victoriously. _She's obviously quite pleased that she's saved my sorry ass,_ he noted, _in more ways than one._

"No, you biological nit-wit," TT2 retorted, "He's working as a double-agent for the Traders' Guild, a.k.a. The Smugglers' Club. They want to keep the trading routes free of tampering from the Empire, so 'Master Stormy' was sent in to buy out the mercenaries and turn them against Mokk. He's had dealings with some of the Alliance's agents as well; and they're working cooperatively with the smugglers, for the time being at least. Both groups, after all, want to diminish the Empire's hold over this area. That's why Stormy knew all about your plan...the Traders' Guild planted their own information chip on board the _Polar Carp_ so that they could find out more details on what the Alliance was planning to do..."

"But who planted the chip on board _my ship_?" Marney asked, annoyed, "Papa never said anything about the Traders' Guild."

"No, he probably didn't know about it," TT2 continued her story, "the mon calamari are not fond of smugglers, and they would not have allowed it. From what Stormy told me, I believe one of the members of the human families that adopted your rescued orphans managed to plant the chip while he was at the spaceport. According to the adoption records that your daughter Kyara provided us with, they were all merchant families and therefore could have had connections with the Traders' Guild. It would have been a relatively simple task to plant the chip on board the _Carp_ with silly Jalleck Braxton in charge of the repairs...Master Jalleck is far too trusting, if you ask me. If I had been operational at that time, I'm sure I would have caught it and of course I would have reported it to you, Captain Marney; but I was not and so I did not."

TT2 paused for a minute to let Marney digest the information, and then resumed her report after he looked at her with an inquisitive expression on his face.

"After Qualle's ill-advised fountain escapade, Stormy caught up with me. I found out about his real plans when he 'extra-programmed' me to put the localized shield up around the control panel back at the base. He's been working as a "double-agent" for the Traders' Guild for some time now. From what I could determine, he knocked out one of the troopers a long while ago and stole his suit of armor. Then he posed as a 'security expert' from the Empire; and Moff Mokk put him to work immediately. Apparently no one here even questioned his story...although if I were in Moff Mokk's position, I certainly would have done so. I promised not to tell anyone about the rebel stormtrooper's affiliation until after the wookiee rebellion was underway; and I believe that the wookiee rebellion is now well underway."

TT2's exposition was interrupted by the sound of thunderous footsteps as a troop of wookiee rebels boarded the ship.


	17. Escape from Rondirak 12

3

 _ **Chapter Seventeen: Escape from Rondirak 12**_

The _Polar Carp_ was being bombarded by blaster pistols and laser rifles. Jalleck had quickly sealed the doors after the wookiees had finished boarding, but they had not been fast enough. A few of the elderly people who had come up from behind had been shot, and they were in danger of bleeding to death. Qualle, Rixxi and Sal helped Woolonn and Chakreech to drag the elders into the healing bay, where Marney had been staying throughout his ordeal.

He knew that the time had come for him to get his backside up off his berth and give it to the more recently injured casualties. TT2 brought him a hover-chair from the storage room and aided him to move into it. He tried his best to help the young people administer first aid, but to his shame he found that he was quite simply in the way.

TT2 briskly ordered him out of the healing bay, and he felt as though he were completely useless. He managed to maneuver his way onto the bridge, where Lyna was conferring with Jalleck and Han Solo.

"I hope you people are ready to roll," Han's voice rang out over the intercom, "because we need to get out of here now...Tarkin's bound to bring in a few reinforcements."

"Ready to go, Captain Solo," Lyna concurred, "We're tied to you, after all."

The engines roared and groaned as the _Falcon_ and the _Carp_ took off in tandem. The intercom was kept operational so that the two ships could coordinate their efforts. They heard Chewbacca roaring as they hurdled into the sky, accompanied by Yabecca and a crowd of other wookiees.

"I don't know about you guys, but we're packed like sardines in here," Han called out, "stuffed to the gills with fur-ball wookiees. I hope that damn fish is waiting for us when we get into space."

"He'll be there," Stormy reassured Han, taking off his bucket-like helmet, "Don't worry so much, Solo!"

Marney was shocked to see that Stormy had boarded _their_ ship and was here with them. His once-obscured face was now revealed to be that of a dark-skinned human sporting the wisp of a moustache.

"You're fired if he's not, Lando!" Han replied gruffly.

Stormy/Lando turned towards Marney and held out his gloved hand.

"Hi, Captain Raddek," he said, "My name is Lando Calrissian. I've been working with the Traders' Guild for some time now...for a hefty fee, of course. I have a bit of a way with mercenaries, so I don't think that most of them will be giving us a hard time. If I've been successful in communicating our mission to the Rebel Alliance, then I believe one of your friends should be waiting for us when we get up there."

"Uh...yeah, right, Stormy...I mean, Master Calrissian," Marney stammered in complete surprise, "Thanks for kidnapping TT2 and doing my job for me. My father should fire me and hire you instead."

"I'm glad to have been of service," Lando told him jauntily, "I thought the Alliance might appreciate a hand, given that you folks didn't sound completely confident in your spying capabilities when I listened in on your conversations. Everything did not unfold completely according to plan for me either: I actually hadn't counted on a wookiee rescue until I met up with Han and Chewbacca. Luckily, the rebellion fit pretty well into our plans—with a few minor adjustments."

Lando's tale was interrupted by a blast to their side.

"Lyna!" Marney cried, floating his hover-chair over to her command seat, "What's going on?"

"It's an Imperial fighter squadron," Lyna reported, "and we are like sitting ducks out here."

The _Millennium Falcon_ took a blast from the other side, and they could hear Han Solo swearing angrily.

"Now would be a good time, Lando!" Solo growled menacingly.

Lando motioned to Lyna to bring up the rear-viewing screen, and out of it they saw a fleet of Rebel gunships moving in on the Squadron. The ships fired on the fighters and sent them scattering like leaves in the wind.

"Merchant ships _Falcon_ and _Carp_ ," came the familiar voice of a mon calamari, "This is Commander Gial Ackbar of the Rebel Alliance. Get in between us, and we'll escort you into hyperspace. Your mission has been accomplished, and the mercenary fleet will accompany the rest of the Wookiee rebels to Kelmoon."

"I hope we can trust the mercenaries, Gial!" Marney shouted into the intercom, "They've been bought out by a double-dealing smuggler-spy, after all."

"We have no choice, Captain Raddek!" Ackbar replied huskily, "We need to get them out of there now, before the base blows."

"Blows?!" Marney echoed his cousin incredulously.

"I also installed a remotely controlled explosive device, which I hid within the localized force-field, when I used TT2 to insert the info-chip into the central control panel," Calrissian explained in a serene manner.

"Thanks a bunch for letting us know, Lando," Solo grumbled, "I always thought you'd make a better spy than a smuggler."

As they moved into position and prepared for the jump into hyper-space, they saw an Imperial vessel speeding off in the opposite direction, and Marney surmised that Tarkin and his gang were on it. Meanwhile, a whole flotilla of mercenary ships appeared behind them. They could only hope that the Traders' Guild had bought them out and that the rest of the wookiees were aboard those ships.

A call came forth from one of the lead vessels, and it was directed towards the _Millennium Falcon_.

"Captain Solo!" cried the voice of Ex-Moff Malken Mokk, "Please tell the rebel commander that I've decided to join the Alliance, and I'm bringing all my men and the wookiees with me. Moff Wilhuff Tarkin has promised to feed me to a crime-lord's rancor if he ever catches me!"

The words were no sooner out of his mouth than a huge explosion was seen from the planet below.

"Prepare to jump into hyperspace on my mark," Ackbar instructed them, and within seconds they were propelled away from Rondirak 12.


	18. Ackbar's Admission

5

 _ **Chapter Eighteen: Ackbar's Admission**_

Once they were safely out of range, the _Polar Carp_ detached from the _Millennium Falcon_ and was brought into the hangar of Ackbar's ship. The injured wookiees were quickly transported to the larger ship's healing bay, which was better equipped to deal with the victims' needs.

The other escapees were very grateful to the crew of the _Polar Carp,_ and they showed it by giving each of the exhausted crew members a hearty wookiee-hug. When his turn came to be embraced by each of the refugees, the wookiees were not put off by his hover-chair but instead kneeled down to give him his hug. As each one enfolded him in his or her arms, Marney thought that his bones were going to break. He survived the expression of gratitude and bowed to the wookiees as best he could from his sitting position in the rickety old hover-chair.

Marney had been ordered by the medical personnel to stay in the chair until his spells of dizziness passed. The old hover-chair was running out of energy, and so a nurse came by to transfer him to a new one. The chair was a big improvement over the last device, and helped him tremendously in maneuvering himself around the ship.

The group was escorted to a dining hall, where they were given snacks and tea. The crew and their escapees devoured the food hungrily, as they had not eaten for more than a day or two.

They were joined by Commander Gial Ackbar, a rusty-orange colored, southern mon calamari who had taken the time to pay them a visit once they were safely underway to Kelmoon. He spoke first to Lando.

"Mr. Calrissian, we—the Rebel Alliance—would like to meet with you on Kelmoon before you depart. Thanks to you, we've gleaned a certain amount of important technological information before the base was successfully destroyed. The rest of the Rebel Forces are on their way now to snatch it from the hands of the Imperials while they're in a state of disarray. If we can hold onto it for even a short period of time, we could slow the progress of the Empire's conquests."

"Glad to have been of service, Commander," Calrissian said with a grin, "I'm willing to meet with the Alliance, but after that I do need to be on my way. Once you have control of the planet, the trade routes should open up again and the Traders' Guild will be thrilled; and, the Rebel Alliance will be in a much better position than it was before. As a bonus, I'm alive and well, with cash to spare in my pocket. That's normally my cue to be moving along—leave 'em while they're happy, I say."

"We could use your help, Master Calrissian," Ackbar pressed him, "if you were willing to serve a greater purpose besides just putting cash in your pocket. The choice is yours, of course, but in my opinion your talents are being wasted on half-rate smugglers."

"I'm sorry, Commander, but I've been serving a greater purpose for long enough. That damn stormtrooper's armor nearly drove me crazy. I can't wait to get back into my Mini-Starfighter and fly away to the next big thing. Han's got my _Minista_ on board his vessel at the moment, so I'll have to wait until we reach Kelmoon."

Ackbar gave Lando a look that suggested disappointment, but he let it go and turned his attention to Marney and his crew.

"The _Minista,"_ Marney commented to Lando in an attempt to avoid conversing with Ackbar, "that was the fighter that I was supposed to have used to catch up with the _Carp_ after I finished my _dead simple_ spy mission."

Lando shrugged, and went off to talk with a female human who was busily engaged in serving the tea and snacks. With his intended distraction otherwise occupied, Marney was forced to look his erstwhile cousin in the eye. He expected to be chided for his idiotic incompetence.

"Gial," he muttered, "nice to see you again."

"Radka," Ackbar greeted the scow captain, "it has been a while since I saw you last. Your father told me that you and your wife Lyna have been involved in rescuing refugees from the prison camps for the past fifteen years. I was not aware of that...and, on behalf of the Alliance, I would like to thank you and your crew for your fine work and bravery..."

Lyna stood up, interrupting the Commander angrily.

"I am Lyna, Marney's wife," she introduced herself, "and you were not aware of the work that Marney did rescuing people, Gial Ackbar, because _you_ are the one who refused to speak to him for over fifteen years. Now that you can plainly see that he's risked his life for your Alliance, you're full of thanks and admiration; but as far as he knows, you still look down on him because of his past."

Ackbar did not defend himself, but quietly acquiesced to Lyna's criticism by lowering his head slightly. Marney stared at his cousin, pleasantly surprised by the words of gratitude that his wife was now rejecting on his behalf. He decided that perhaps he would give Gial the benefit of the doubt and try to hold Lyna off for the time being.

"Lyna, come on," Marney murmured to her, "Fifteen years ago, when I was nothing but a drunk, my cousin Gial was the one who stuck in there and fought for our freedom...he even got caught by that warped monster, Wilhuff Tarkin, and was forced to serve as his slave for a period of time. And, let's not forget that he did come to our rescue at Ron 12 once we got into space. Thanks for that, Gy, and for your words of appreciation to my crew. They're my family now, and I'm incredibly proud of them. As for me, I haven't earned any respect...not for this mission, anyways."

Ackbar sighed, sitting down at the table and pouring himself a cup of seaweed tea. The others regarded the warrior silently, unsure of what to say to him. Finally, he spoke to his cousin.

"Rad," Ackbar acknowledged, "Your wife is right. Before I blabber on about thanks and bravery, I need to tell you something: I owe you an apology for the way I treated you before I broke our bond of friendship. When I called you a drunk, we both know that I was being a hypocrite. After my wife was killed during one of my glorious missions, I had a very difficult time coping with it. I began to drink heavily, but I was a little better at hiding it than either you or your father. Few people knew that it was a problem for me, except of course for my immediate family; and I wanted to keep it that way. I stopped speaking to you not because of your drinking so much as mine. I was afraid that if I continued to spend time with you that I'd begin to get a bad reputation and would never be able to advance in my career. I hope you will forgive me for my cowardice in that regard."

Marney stared at his cousin, shocked. Since they were children, Gial had always played the role of the hero. When they were older they had gone out drinking together many times, but Gial had never appeared to be struggling with it in the same way that he or even his father Raddus had done. Lyna held her mate's hand and looked at Ackbar in a more approving manner now that he had honestly acknowledged his own fault in the matter, but Marney felt as though he was the one who should be apologizing.

"Hey, Gial, I never knew any of that," he finally replied, "but I guess back then I was too much of a selfish, spineless jellyfish to see it. I'm sorry...I wish I'd been a real friend to you after Yil died, but instead I made things a hell of a lot worse for you. Lyna got me back on my feet again...she saved my life, really. If it hadn't been for her, I would never have had the guts to quit. I don't know what I'd do if I had lost her on that damn mission of ours...especially since it turned out to be so unnecessary."

Ackbar sipped his tea thoughtfully for a moment before responding.

"You're like your father, Rad," he said, "You're too hard on yourself. Admiral Raddus may not admit it to you, but he's very proud of you for taking on the mission. When Tarkin sent us both messages telling us what he was going to do to you, Raddus contacted me and he was extremely upset. He blamed himself for sending you out there, but I told him that you were your father's son and that you would return victorious. I was correct."

"'Victorious'," Marney reiterated, "That's a bit of a stretch, Gial. I mean, TT2 and Lando could have done it more easily without me...I was stupid to put my family and my crew in danger just so I could earn a scrap of respect from the Old Fish."

Lyna turned her fury on her husband now that Ackbar had redeemed himself in her eyes through his apology.

"Marney, stop it!" she exclaimed, "Your cousin is right...you are too hard on yourself. You need to let go of who you were in the past and step into who you are right now. You're not a drunk anymore, you're not stupid, you're not selfish, and you're not a jellyfish—now get over it and take some accolades for a change!"

The crew broke their silence, supporting Lyna by cheering on their Captain.

"As far as Mama, Sal and I are concerned, you're our hero, Papa," Rixxi told him earnestly, "so don't try to wriggle out of it, you Old Fish!"

"Right, Cap'n," Jalleck chimed in, "That goes for Yab, the kids, and I too. We'd follow you anywhere."

Marney felt as though they were overstating the case just to make him feel like less of an ass, but he was grateful to them nonetheless. Ackbar, however, had not finished with him yet.

"Rad," he said after the crew had voiced their support for the under-confident spy, "We sent you to Rondirak 12 because we weren't certain about Calrissian...he _is_ a smuggler, after all, and so he was an unknown element. As it turned out, he did accomplish the mission, but you helped him by being the decoy. You acted as a foil for his stormtrooper persona and you kept Mokk's attention away from Lando; and your droid was an invaluable help to him while installing the info-chip, explosive device, and localized force field...is that not true, Master Calrissian?"

Lando had returned to the table after having made an unsuccessful pass at the waitress. He held a cup of _anything-but-seaweed_ tea in his hand, and he nodded in agreement with Ackbar's statement.

"I don't know that I would have gotten it without TT2," he acknowledged, "and Lyna, Oola, Han, Qualle, and Marney did a great job keeping the Moffs distracted until Chewie came in with his rebel army. We worked pretty well as a team, I thought; and it all came together in the end. You never know how these things are going to turn out, Marney. You just need to trust your people and hope for the best."

"But if you were all planning on blowing the place up, why did you bother with the chip?" Marney asked, perplexed.

"We didn't intend to blow it up," Ackbar admitted, "The Traders' Guild decided to do that, but they did not let us know until after they'd installed the explosive. We did manage to glean some information from the chip before everything blew, so it wasn't a complete waste...and Calrissian is correct, Rad. You never know how things will turn out because the conditions of a mission are always changing. You and your crew adapted well and did the best you could with a problematic assignment."

Marney decided to take Ackbar and Lando at their respective words and accept the possibility that perhaps he had not performed quite as badly as he had first imagined...although the nagging doubts still lurked in the back of his mind. After all, what would they do now that their cover was blown and they could no longer lug trash for the Empire?


	19. It's been a Slice of Sugar-Cake

4

 _ **Chapter Nineteen: It's been a Slice of Sugar-Cake**_

As Marney and his crew disembarked from Ackbar's vessel onto the base at Kelmoon, Han Solo and Chewbacca were there to greet them. Marney, Jalleck, and Lyna shook Chewbacca's hand and thanked him for his courageous actions in freeing his people and rescuing the crew of the _Carp_ as well.

The Wookiee simply grunted.

"Chewie isn't into receiving compliments," Han explained, "His main goal was to free the wookiees, but he was happy to help you guys as a by-product of his little revolt..."

Chewbacca interrupted his friend with a series of growls.

"He says that Yabecca and her younglings, together with your two kids Sal and Rixxi, helped them with the attack on the atrium so it was a fair trade," Han translated on Chewbacca's behalf.

"I know," Marney replied, "the kids have been amazing; but I had to say _something_ to Chewbacca. Lyna and I have been rescuing people for fifteen years, and so it was nice to have someone rescue us for a change."

Chewbacca had stopped listening to them, as the direction of his gaze drifted towards Yabecca. The female wookiee was in the middle of organizing the freed prisoners, but when she saw the big male looking at her she gestured to him to come over and speak with her. Jalleck watched the pair sorrowfully.

"Well, Cap'n," Jal said, "I guess Yabecca won't be joining us on our new venture—whatever that may be. One of the escapees who was traveling with us on board Ackbar's ship was a priestess of the Kashyyk Order, and she just granted Yab and me a divorce."

"Oh!" Lyna gasped in horror, "Jal, I'm so sorry! With all that's been going on, I didn't even know that you and Yab were having trouble with your marriage. I would have tried to help you to stick with it—that's what Marney and I have done, in spite of all our differences."

Marney could tell by looking into Jalleck's eyes that he and Yab had no intention of " _sticking with it_ ".

"Thanks, Lyna," Jal told her sadly, "but you see, Chewbacca kind of reminded Yab that she was a wookiee and not a human. I think they kind of like each other..."

"But Yabecca's _not_ coming with Chewie and I when we fly out of here in the _Falcon,_ " Han interrupted Jalleck, "She told him she was going to stay on Kelmoon and try to find someplace for the escapees to start a new, free colony. Chewie's kind of broken up about it, but I think Yab is the independent sort...luckily for me, or I'd lose my best buddy in the whole damn galaxy."

"Not so lucky for me, though," Jalleck countered, "because I _am_ losing my best buddy in the whole damn galaxy...even though it was only ever a marriage of convenience with me and Yab. I just married her so that her father the Chieftain wouldn't kill me. Still, it's going to be rough losing her. She kind of grew on me, if you know what I mean."

Marney put a webbed hand on his engineer's shoulder. In the short time that he had known them, Jal and Yab had become their steadfast friends. He hated to see them break up, but he knew that it was probably for the best.

There was another series of growls from Yabecca as she called for her younglings and ex-mate.

"Sorry, guys, when Yab calls, I have to answer immediately," Jalleck called to them as he jogged over to where Yab and Chewbacca were conferring.

Oola, Lando, Sal and Rixxi had been busily engaged in retrieving Lando's _Minista_ craft from the _Millennium Falcon_ while the couple had been listening to Jalleck's sad news. When they had finished their task, they left the little star-fighter in the hangar and came out to the base's waiting area to join their fellow revolutionaries. The two half-sisters, Oola and Rixxi, were walking arm in arm, happy to have an opportunity to be together at last.

Lyna gave Oola a hug.

"Oola, thank you so much for helping us escape," she told her, "And you too, Han. I know that you're both like Chewbacca in that neither of you want me to shower you with gratitude, but you and Han saved our lives by holding off the stormtroopers so that we could all escape to the _Carp_."

"Lyna, you and Rixxi, and even Sal and Marney, are my family," she told them, "so I don't want to hear any _thanks_ , especially since you all helped me to escape the clutches of that ogre Tarkin and that fool Mokk. I could not stand them another minute! I can't believe that the Alliance is going to trust that self-serving turncoat Mokk enough to send him back to Ron 12 with his half-assed mercenaries. They should shoot him!"

"But, Oola, this could be Mokk's chance to turn himself around," Rixxi protested, "He and his men should get another chance, just like Papa did."

"You're far kinder than I am, Sister," Oola replied, putting her arm around Rixxi's shoulder and giving her an affectionate squeeze, "and I hope they don't betray you all to the Evil Empire. If Mokk turned so easily to the Alliance to save his own skin, he could just as easily switch back to the Wicked Ones again."

"Oola," Lyna suggested excitedly, "Forget about Mokk and his gang of idiots for now. I just had an idea: Yabecca is going to be leaving us, and so we have a spot open for a new crew member. Would you like to join us?"

Rixxi jumped up and down in anticipation of having her sister join the _Polar Carp_ family, but Oola shook her head sadly.

"Rixxi, Lyna," she said, "I'm so sorry to disappoint you, but lugging trash is not what I want to do with my life. I am a dancer, and I long to dance on behalf of myself rather than for some snotty slave-master. I would like to try my luck on another planet somewhere, but haven't decided where yet. I have received two other offers to help me get there..."

"What do you mean, _two,_ Oola?" Han asked in dismay, "I thought you'd already decided to come with me and Chewie."

"Han, my dear fighting-mate," Oola soothed him, "You know that I would love to join you and Chewie, but you see I've discovered through my recent contact with so many of these hairy wookiees that I am actually allergic to their fur. You wouldn't want me along when I was sneezing and wheezing all the time, would you? Lando has kindly offered to bring me with him in his _Minista."_

Han glowered at Lando, who was standing beside Oola with a triumphant expression on his face.

"Why, you double-dealing spy-smug!" Han exploded, "I was the one who helped her escape while you were pushing us around as Stormy-the-stormtrooper."

"Sorry, Han," he apologized, "better luck next time; but really, I think Oola just wants a ride from me. There's nothing for you to be envious about."

"Yeah, I'll bet," Han muttered, "looks like Chewie and me are both going to be dateless again tonight."

Lyna and Rixxi listened to the men's banter without enthusiasm. Marney knew that they were both disappointed with Oola's decision, but the reality was that the _Carp_ might not be able to find any more work contracts anyways. The use of droid ships to perform the galaxy's menial tasks was beginning to displace the work of biological beings, and the compacting technology was now able to minimize large amounts of garbage into tinier and tinier recyclable energy bits. He supposed that it was a good thing in practical terms, but it did leave Marney with that increasingly familiar feeling of uselessness.

His thoughts were interrupted by Qualle, who strode over to him with TT2.

"Captain Marney," he said, "You must come with me. Your father wishes to speak with you, and so do our mothers."

"What?" cried Marney in surprise, "You mean, over the base's communication channel?"

"No, I mean they're here, on Kelmoon," Qualle explained, "and we must go immediately to see them. My mother Quille knew exactly what was happening to us during every step of the mission, because of the information chip that she implanted in TT2. You remember, the spy-box program that she and TT2 call QQ2, after the initials of me and my father Quorr? My mother helped us to program the droid while you were visiting with your own mother Rallen. At any rate, Quille contacted Rallen after TT2 sent her the message about us being eaten as seafood meals by the Imperials. She and Rallen took a transport to Kelmoon in order to get after your father to send a rescue team. Your father had already sent Ackbar, so their visit was unnecessary, but..."

"All right, all right, Qualle!" Marney replied anxiously, "Let's just go...by Thorus, I can't believe Mama actually came out here. She's probably killed my poor father!"

"I can jump into my stormtrooper's armor again and arrest you, Marney," Lando offered, "if you think it will help."

"We're coming with you," Lyna insisted, ignoring the former Stormy's remark.

They bid a sad but hasty farewell to Oola, Han, and Lando before following Qualle to go see the parents.

"I'll say G'bye to Chewie for you," Han called after them, "it's been a real slice of sugar-cake working with you all!"


	20. A Mission of the Heart

4

 _ **Chapter Twenty: A Mission of the Heart**_

Marney and his family followed Qualle and TT2 into one of Kelmoon's many meeting areas. As soon as they entered, Rallen and Quille embraced their sons whole-heartedly, and did the same to Marney's family members as well. Lyna, Sal, and Rixxi had come with them in order to stand by Marney in case his father became irate at him for not following the original mission plan. Admiral Raddus was standing behind the two matrons with Commander Ackbar and a tired-looking quarren that Marney assumed was Qualle's father Quorr.

"Qualle," Quorr greeted his son in a somber fashion, "I am pleased that you were not served as seafood to The Emperor."

Qualle walked over to his father and the two entwined their chin-tentacles together. Qualle's mother Quille was not as serene as her mate.

"I would have pulverized Palpatine," she snarled, "Come along, my TT2, and tell me everything else that I have missed...when I knew that Qualle was in danger, I stopped looking at the transmissions, contacted Marney's Mama, and flew to Kelmoon as fast as I could drag Rallen and her three ewoks along."

Qualle left with TT2 and his parents in order to have some private family time with them.

"I should be getting back to my ship," Ackbar said to them in a slightly awkward fashion, retreating towards the door, "I was just checking in with the Admiral and speaking to him about...er...future possibilities for you and your crew, Captain Raddek."

"Thanks, Gial—for everything," Marney mumbled.

Gial nodded, and bowed to his Aunt Rallen before he departed, leaving the family alone together.

"Radka," Rallen said to him, "Your father was extremely agitated when Tarkin issued his threat to feed you to Mokk's men. I was upset as well, but I felt that I needed to be with Charcorr in order to calm his fears. I hope you aren't embarrassed about my coming out here...I truly hate outer space, and I would never have come with Quille if I didn't think it was necessary."

"I know, Mama," Marney reassured her, "Of course I'm not embarrassed, because I know how much you love me. I don't say it much, but I love you, too."

"Us too, Grandmama," Rixxi added, as she and Sal gave her an extra embrace, "I hope the ewoks didn't give you too much trouble."

"Uh...well, dear," Rallen stammered, "I'm afraid that ewoks don't take well to marine environments. I've got so many bites from them that I almost ended up as a meal myself. As soon as the wookiees began to arrive here at Kelmoon I surrendered them to one of the females, who assured me that she would give them to Yabecca."

Lyna glanced at the Admiral, who was standing off to one side looking rather uncomfortable.

"Why don't we go and see how the ewoks are doing, Mother Rallen?" Lyna suggested, "We'll protect you from them, I promise."

Rallen nodded, taking Lyna by the arm.

"Yes," she agreed, "I'd like to spend some time with my daughter-in-law and grandchildren...and it will give Rad a chance to speak with his Papa."

His family left him alone with his father as Marney stared after them like a lost orphan. The two of them stood silently, until he began to feel uncomfortable himself.

"Well, Papa," he finally stammered, "I...I guess I should say that I'm sorry for nearly messing up the mission..."

Charcorr walked over to him and stared into his golden eyes for a moment.

"Radka," he said, "or perhaps it's time that I called you by your chosen name, Marney. No matter what name you choose for yourself, it's me who needs to be sorry, not you. I function well as Admiral Raddus, but you must know that as your father I'm a complete idiot. I always thought that I had to be extra tough on you because you were so much like me; but this stupid mission that I sent you on made me realize how much I value your life and who you are as an individual. I'm proud of you, and always have been...even when you were screwing up. I knew that you inherited that particular tendency from me."

Marney blinked in surprise, unable to speak. He felt a mixture of emotions welling up within him, particularly grief for his lost bond with his father. Together with his grief there was also an odd sense of joy at the possibility of having discovered that the bond still existed. For the first time in many years, he felt as though he could look his father in the eye as an adult rather than as a frightened child.

"I forgive you, Papa, for all the crap you put our family through," he admitted at last, "and I think that maybe I can even start to forgive myself for lugging around my own garbage all these years."

"Okay, kid, but let's not hug," Raddus replied, a certain wry sense of humor returning to his voice, "because I have another job for you."

Marney's bulging eyes opened even wider than they did normally.

"I hope it's not another spy mission, Papa," he retorted cautiously, "One thing that I learned from the last one is that battles and shooting people are just not my thing. Besides, I need to consider my family's needs as well."

"No, not a spy mission," Raddus responded, "because your cover with the Empire has been blown to bits. The Rebel Alliance doesn't need you to lug our trash, either...we have droids to deal with that. Ackbar suggested to me that you ask your Engineer to re-fit the _Polar Carp_ as an Emergency Rescue vessel. We were thinking that you could deliver medical supplies to various Rebel bases and rescue those fleeing war zones, of which there are many these days."

For the first time since they had embarked on the mission to Rondirak 12, Marney felt a surge of excitement and hope for the future.

"I think that's very possible, Papa," he agreed, "and I'll ask Jalleck about a re-fit."

"Good," Raddus replied briskly, "I'll consider that as a 'yes' answer, but I'm afraid that you won't have time for a re-fit quite yet. We can't risk the flagship _Profundity_ on a fly-by-night operation like Rondirak 12, but I'm sending Ackbar back to help secure it while we still can. You'll accompany him with your first load of medical supplies, because there are reports of injuries near the explosion site. Any questions?"

Marney felt his head swim. He was still in a hover-chair and the _Carp_ no doubt needed repairs, but he nonetheless felt ready to go. He touched a button on his wrist-band in order to contact Jalleck.

"Hey, Jal," he inquired, "How soon can you have the _Carp_ ready for action?"

"It's already done, Cap'n," Jal reported, "with the help of the new crew member who's replacing Yab. It's our adopted son, Woolonn! Little Chakreech wants to stay with Yab and help her with the ewoks Tob, Mika, and Tinu; but Wooly decided that it was time for him to take his traditional test of wookiee manhood and take a chance on working with me. He's my assistant now—I hope that meets with your approval, Captain Marney?"

"Absolutely," Marney concurred, glad that at least one wookiee would be staying on as a crew member, "now listen, Jal—you order Woolonn to grab Qualle and TT2 from their parents, and I'll round up Lyna and the kids. We need to load the _Carp_ full of medical supplies and go back to Rondirak 12."

Jalleck affirmed the order and set to work while Marney turned to his father to bid him farewell.

"Good-bye, Papa," the former scow captain said to the admiral, "tell Mama that I hope to see both of you again soon."

"Go on," Raddus answered with an impatient wave of his webbed hand, "Get out of here, son, and don't screw up this time. I've got a date with your mother, seeing as how she came all the way out here to join us. For the first time ever, I'm going to bring her on board _The Profundity_ and show her what I do for a living...maybe I'll even take her on a ride in one of my _Hammerhead Corvettes,_ if there's time."

"She'll appreciate it," Marney told him mischievously, "and I sure hope the date goes well, _Charc-the-Shark Raddus!"_

Before his father could respond to that bit of impudence, the captain of the emergency rescue ship _Polar Carp_ gunned his hover-chair into high power and flew off to do his duty with his heart fully loaded.


End file.
